Building on the results of the predecessor FP7 project 'IncoNet EaP', the project will eliminate remaining obstacles to EU-EaP STI cooperation through a number of innovative and targeted actions:

• strategic priority setting through supporting EU-EaP policy dialogue and through maximizing the impact of the association to Horizon 2020;
• stronger interaction between researchers & participation in H2020, i.e. Info days, cooperation with scientific diaspora, and grants for networking;
• promotion of the research-innovation interface supporting communities of excellence, i.e. co-patenting analyses, clustering schemes, promotion of the technology platforms concept to EaP countries;
• optimal framework conditions and increasing coordination in policies and programmes through training seminars for STI policymakers, increased coordination and synergies between policies and programmes of EU/MS and EaP, i.e. JPIs, COST, national programmes;
• communication and outreach through innovative actions

Coordinator of EaP PLUS is Dr. George Bonas, Managing Director of the Centre for Regional & International STI Studies & Support - CeRISS. The consortium of EaP PLUS consists of 17 experienced partners presenting a broad geographic coverage and complementary competences.

Partners from 14 countries are participating in the consortium with good balance between EU and EaP partners: 9 from EU MS and 8 from EaP countries. Two of the partners possess an international character, namely the International Centre for Black Sea Studies – ICBSS located in Greece and the European Business and Innovation Centre Network – EBN located in Belgium.

The eight institutions from all the six EaP countries participating in the project include public authorities/funding agencies (UKRTECHNIFORM acting on behalf of the Ministry of Education and Science/UA; SRNSF/GE; SDF-AZ/AZ), research organizations (NASU/UA, NAS-RA/AM, CIP on behalf of the Academy of Sciences/MD, BelISA/BY) and civil society (ICARTI/GE). 

On the EU side, the consortium includes partners from 8 MS i.e. Austria (ZSI), Belgium (EBN), France (Inno TSD), Germany (DLR), Greece (CeRISS), Hungary (RCISD), Poland (IPPT-PAN) and Portugal (SPI), who have experience as: a) responsible drivers of international STI cooperation with the EaP region; b) innovation specialists and members of important EU innovation networks; c) NCPs.