The Delegation of the European Union to Jordan is seeking proposals for the call for proposals “Innovate Jordan”, financed under the new programme “Innovation for Enterprise Growth and Jobs”.

The global objective of ‘Innovate Jordan’ programme is to contribute to positioning private sector innovation as the main driver of inclusive economic development.

This will be achieved by increasing the depth and coherence of the enterprise and innovation ecosystem through three distinct and complementary lots:

• Lot 1: SME Growth Factory
• Lot 2: Centre(s) of Excellence
• Lot 3: Open Innovation Hub.

The specific objective(s) of ‘Innovate Jordan’ are:

• For Lot 1: to create or develop an ‘SME Growth Factory’ that helps existing innovative high growth potential enterprises to scale and grow.
• For Lot 2: to support the development of (a) sector Centre(s) of Excellence that boost the competitiveness of high growth and innovation potential sector(s) by facilitating access to innovation inputs.
• For Lot 3: to support the establishment of an Innovation Hub that promotes and strengthens the innovation culture and facilitates innovation demand and supply matchmaking.

The priorities of ‘Innovate Jordan’ programme are:

1. The private sector is placed at the centre of innovation development. This justifies the requirement of the call for lead-applicants to be private sector entities.
2. The primary driver of innovation development is the demand for solutions. Such demand is exposed through undertaking of value chain analysis and market study which enables innovators to position their value propositions based on comparative advantages.
3. Knowledge is recognized as a central input fostering enterprise competitiveness through innovation. The action will contribute to producing, disseminating and transforming knowledge into commercial opportunities and trigger technology absorption, investment and growth.
4. The call aims at strengthening linkages and partnerships: these linkages can be within a specific sector, be organised within value chains or clusters or aim to generate synergy between the private and public sectors, academia and civil society. The call is also seeking to open up and connect the Jordanian ecosystem with the international innovation environment and encourages stakeholders to transfer expertise, build strategic partnerships, adopt good practices and generate synergy.
5. The call will support actions that enhance the active participation of women in the innovation cycle: This can be achieved – for instance – by providing special attention and tailor-made support to women-led innovative enterprises or women innovators, promoting women-led applied research and/or by facilitating the adoption of innovative solutions developed by women-led enterprises or communities.
6. The call is designed to generate additionality and complementarity by building-on the existing innovation ecosystem: the Jordanian ecosystem has made significant progress over the last 15 years and is diversified, dynamic and endowed with infrastructure and facilities. The call will encourage investment in intangible activities that complement and exploit the existing ecosystem to leverage impact (focus on investment in innovation inputs such as knowledge, technology transfer, learning, financing rather than investing in physical buildings and equipment unless absolutely necessary).
7. Actions supported should demonstrate the viability and replicability of their approach: each action should be based on a thorough needs analysis. It should be underpinned by an intervention approach that adds value to the existing support ecosystem and include a realistic roadmap for sustainability.
8. The specific definition of innovation and projects performance indicators are left to the applicants’ discretion: Impact performance indicators do not have to reflect directly the job creation objective of the programme, but may clearly articulate how the action will contribute to the overall objective of driving growth and job creation through innovation.