The funds make up the Intelligent Specialisation Strategy for the North for the period 2021-2027 and absorbs more than 30% of the three billion euros of regional funds allocated to this region and managed by the Commission for Coordination and Regional Development of the North (CCDRN).

The strategy defines the areas that are considered regional value chains and that will guide the application of community funds until 2027, with the choices that the region made "in an exercise that was very much participated by academia, companies, business associations", according to the Minister of Territorial Cohesion, Ana Abrunhosa.

The minister participated in the presentation of the strategy, which took place at the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança (IPB), and explained that it “indicates those priority areas where it represents the choices of the region in terms of funding options in the field of science and competitiveness”.

The president of the CCDRN, António Cunha, specified the “eight priority areas of regional commitment that have to do with the reality and ambition of the future evolution of the region”.

Innovation is the watchword of this strategy that “conditions the choices that the region will make”, as the minister pointed out.

“The North has taken a path that we want to consolidate, the latest results of a work by the European Commission - the competitiveness index - place the North region as the second region that made the biggest leap in terms of innovation and this is the result of the investment of European funds," she said.