EABID – Built for the Middle

The most under-used assets in Europe may be its mid-sized nations and city-regions. These places are big enough to experiment at meaningful scale, however small and agile enough to build consensus and change course quickly. Yet they often lack the scale, capital access and global clout to move markets or standards on their own. The opportunity — and the core argument of this article series — is that innovation alliances between such places, supported by platforms like EABID, can create outsized impact for Europe as a whole.

Why mid-sized countries and cities matter

Midsized nations and regions sit in a strategic "sweet spot" for innovation. They typically have strong institutions, robust social contracts and high levels of human capital, but are not so large that every reform becomes a constitutional crisis. This combination makes them ideal for testing and demonstrating new technologies, governance models and regulatory approaches that can later scale. Many of Europe's most dynamic digital, life sciences, green-tech and advanced manufacturing clusters are rooted in mid-sized cities and regions – places where most Europeans actually live and work, rather than in a handful of mega-cities.

Europe's federated structure amplifies both the strengths and weaknesses of this reality. Diversity of systems, languages and legal frameworks complicate cross-border activities, fragment markets and slow decision-making. However, this heterogeneity gives Europe an unparalleled portfolio of testbeds that builds resilience – having been tested against different institutional traditions, policy mixes and societal preferences.

Midsized countries and cities are particularly well suited to hosting such experiments. They can align local stakeholders around a shared mission more easily, bring universities, businesses and communities into the same room, and move faster on planning, permitting and service redesign than larger, more centralised systems. However, what they often lack is a structured way to plug into complementary peers across Europe, share models, and present a coherent demand signal to regulators and investors.

These are the places EABID is built for. Not because they are underdogs, and not in opposition to anyone else, but because they share a specific situation: large enough to matter, small enough that scale, standards, and policy are genuinely hard to influence alone. When ten or twenty such places work together in a structured way – sharing what works, co-designing pilots, presenting a common voice where it counts – the maths starts to change.

Europe's collaborative edge — and where EABID fits

EABID believes Europe is better together when it builds on the strengths of its midsized cities and regions. Larger districts and ecosystems are welcome too, and several are already involved. The test is not size but attitude: a willingness to collaborate as equals, contribute experience without dominating, and treat smaller partners as peers rather than audiences.

In practice, this means three things:

• ●EABID connects people and ecosystems to build trusting, productive relationships amongst innovation agencies, city governments, business clusters, universities and investors – within and across borders, so that successful models in one place can be adopted or adapted in another, rather than reinvented from scratch.
• ●EABID identifies and acts on shared opportunities, infrastructures, and standards that can attract capital and shape policy, by turning fragmented local initiatives into a portfolio.
• ●EABID provides a common voice for mid-sized leaders representing members' interests at European and global tables.

None of these gaps require a grand theory to fix. They require a working network with the commitment and discipline to actually produce something.

What EABID is, and what it is not

EABID is in an early stage. It is honest about that. It is not yet a large institution, and it is not trying to replace anything that already works. What it is trying to be is a practical platform: a place where business and innovation districts and similar organised ecosystems can find each other, learn from each other, and gradually build joint work.

At its launch in Brussels in March, EABID convened leaders from midsized European regions, EU institutions and international partners to explore how to streamline collaboration and reduce friction for innovators to improve Europe's competitiveness. The ambition is to move from discussion to demonstration as quickly as possible. A network is only worth joining if, within a reasonable time, members can point to something concrete they got out of it: a contact that mattered, a method they borrowed, a project that would not have happened otherwise, a funding application that was stronger because someone else had walked the same path.

EABID is launching working groups on shared problems, peer reviews, co-designed pilots, occasional joint positions where there is real consensus. Over time, as that body of practical work grows, EABID can play a more visible role on questions of EU funding, policy and international cooperation.

What happens next?

Under the Irish H'26 EU Presidency, the Sandyford Innovation Summit will dig deeper into the design of a shared blueprint for national and regional innovation ecosystems. Participants will begin to outline the core structural blocks that every Member State needs – from governance to infrastructure, skills, finance and regulation – and identify priority sectors where 28th-regime-style frameworks and cross-border collaboration can unlock scale.

On the topic of international cooperation, there is clear interest from, and emerging plans with, a significant number of mid-sized countries and regions across the world. These should lead to productive collaborations to support international scale-up and trade, and tackle some vexing common challenges.

Over the next year, the question facing Europe's midsized regions is not whether they should collaborate more deeply, but how quickly they can start.

At the recent Davos WEF gathering, Carney urged middle powers to act ambitiously and build new institutions and alliances. EABID offers a concrete vehicle through which Europe's midsized locations – and their international partners – can do exactly that.