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REGIOSTARS Awards

Regiostars Awards

REGIOSTARS: Celebrating Excellence in EU-Funded Projects in Regions

The REGIOSTARS Awards, organized annually by DG REGIO since 2008, celebrate outstanding EU-funded projects driving regional development. Over the years, they have become Europe’s label of excellence for initiatives that deliver lasting impact and promote inclusion. The REGIOSTARS Awards focus on five key areas, each representing a priority for the EU’s regional policy:

Meet the Finalists

This year, the competition has once again reached new heights, with a record of 274 applications submitted. After the first round of evaluation, the jury has selected 25 outstanding finalists across five categories. You can find the finalists of each category below.

Have Your Say — Vote by 14 October!

The REGIOSTARS finalists are waiting for your vote!

Until 14 October at midday, explore this year’s inspiring finalist projects on the REGIOSTARS website and cast your vote for your favourite. Your vote will help decide the winner of the People’s Choice Award.

Discover – choose - vote. Make your voice count!

What Happens Next?

  • Final Round

    The finalists will meet for the “final round” of jury evaluation on 13 October during the European Week of Regions and Cities in Brussels. There they will pitch their projects to the jury and a live audience. This is their opportunity to showcase their achievements and explain why their project deserves to win.
  • Ceremony

    Winners in each category, as well as the People’s Choice Award winner, will be announced during the REGIOSTARS ceremony, in the evening of 14 October. This event marks the conclusion of the European Week of Regions and Cities.

Why Should You Get involved?

The REGIOSTARS Awards are more than just a competition. They are a celebration of the creativity, hard work, and dedication of people across Europe. By participating in the public vote, you can support the initiatives that align with your values and priorities and be part of a movement that promotes regional development and inclusivity.

Past Editions

A COMPETITIVE AND SMART EUROPE

AI Holopresence
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  • Slovakia

AI Holopresence

AI Holopresence is a generative AI for photorealistic 3D human reconstruction, enabling people meet as their real selves in immersive XR, not as avatars or flat video tiles. Developed in Eastern Slovakia by MATSUKO with Pavol Jozef Šafárik University and ERDF funding, it resulted to three patent applications and a market-ready product used in industrial training, education, remote collaboration and the EU 6GXR project.
Project website
CYENS Hub Nicosia
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  • Cyprus

CYENS Hub Nicosia

The Municipality of Nicosia transformed a landmark modernist market located near the Green Line into CYENS Centre of Excellence - a leading research and innovation hub for artificial intelligence, smart cities, immersive technologies, and entrepreneurship. The project combines heritage preservation, urban regeneration, sustainability, and innovation, transforming a neglected public building into a vibrant European innovation ecosystem.
Project website
Data Haven
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  • Netherlands

Data Haven

Through the Data Haven project, SecuMailer B.V. has developed an innovative, hybrid, and sovereign solution for secure email communication. The project has resulted in a market-ready solution that enables the secure processing of privacy-sensitive emails, with temporary data storage either within the client's own environment or in a Dutch private cloud, fully independent of non-European hyperscalers. The solution complies with current European legislation, including GDPR, eIDAS2, NIS2.
Project website
INO-3D-BITES
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  • Lithuania

INO-3D-BITES

The project created a patented edible clean label food product with enhanced biological value, produced from freeze-dried powder. Six functional snacks were developed from 60 freeze-dried natural ingredients and surplus produce, preserving full nutritional value without artificial additives. BITES are designed to reshape healthy snacking across Europe by offering convenient and sustainable nutrition. The innovation has been validated as dual-use technology by the European Space Agency and NATO.
Project website
Porto Comprehensive Cancer Center
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  • Portugal

Porto Comprehensive Cancer Center

Porto.CCC – TeamUp4Cancer transformed Northern Portugal into a precision oncology hub. By bringing together IPO Porto and i3S, it created Portugal's first Precision Oncology Programme, giving more than 1,500 patients access to cutting-edge diagnostics and enabling hundreds to participate in clinical trials, including early-phase studies, while strengthening regional competitiveness. With 53 publications and five international patents, TU4C demonstrates how Cohesion Policy can transform emerging regions into European research leaders.
Project website

A GREEN EUROPE

AlpTextyles
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  • Interreg Alpine Space (Switzerland, Slovenia, Austria, France, Germany, Italy)

AlpTextyles

For centuries, Alpine communities produced textiles from local wool, flax and plant dyes: creating circular systems rooted in deep knowledge of local places and resources. Globalisation disrupted these value chains; AlpTextyles has helped restore them in a modern way. By bringing cultures together, it reconnected farmers, craftspeople, designers and SMEs across six Alpine countries to rebuild circular textile value chains. The results are already visible: through new tools, networks, organisations, and products. The Alps are reweaving their future.
Project website
Birch Bark – Latvia’s Green Gold
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  • Latvia

Birch Bark – Latvia’s Green Gold

Project Birch Bark – Latvia’s Green Gold project transforms birch bark, previously burned as industrial waste, into high-value bio-based ingredients for the health, food supplement and cosmetic industries. The project developed a patented, eco-innovative and scalable technology for producing multifunctional betulin microparticles with exceptional bioactive properties. It demonstrates how circular bioeconomy solutions can transform renewable natural resources into sustainable green innovation with global market potential.
Project website
Crete-Attica Interconnector
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  • Greece

Crete-Attica Interconnector

The Crete-Attica Electrical Interconnection links Crete, Greece’s largest island with significant renewable energy potential due to its location, to the mainland electricity grid via a subsea cable, ending its long-standing energy isolation. The project replaces oil-based power with clean electricity, enhances security of supply, reduces emissions and costs, and enables large-scale integration of renewable energy, supporting Greece’s transition to a climate-neutral future.
Project website
eLiRec – Greener Battery Recycling
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  • Germany

eLiRec – Greener Battery Recycling

eLiRec developed a greener and more selective method for recovering valuable materials from spent lithium-ion batteries. Instead of relying solely on energy-intensive and chemically harsh conventional recycling processes, the project used electrochemical extraction to recover lithium and other critical elements from battery waste. In doing so, eLiRec helps transform end-of-life batteries into new resources, strengthens circular value chains, reduces waste, and supports the green transition in Saarland and beyond.
Project website
Llobregat River Transformation
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  • Spain

Llobregat River Transformation

This strategic project, promoted by the Barcelona Metropolitan Area, has transformed a historically degraded river corridor into an ecological, social and landscape connector, while also strengthening the region’s green-blue infrastructure. Nature-based solutions implemented along the 36 km stretch have improved the ecological quality and increased its adaptation to the climate change effects. Today, around 2.5 million people each year enjoy this nearby, biodiverse, and unique natural space.
Project website

A CONNECTED EUROPE

Alexandroupolis Independent Natural Gas System
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  • Greece

Alexandroupolis Independent Natural Gas System

The Alexandroupolis Independent Natural Gas System (INGS) is a strategic energy gateway strengthening Europe’s energy security and resilience. Through its state-of-the-art LNG Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU) and integrated transmission infrastructure, it diversifies energy supply sources and routes, opens new regional energy corridors and supports a more secure and competitive energy market across Southeast and Central Europe.
Project website
AtlanticOnBike – EuroVelo1
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  • Interreg Atlantic Area (France, Norway, UK (Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and South-West), Ireland, Belgium, Spain and Portugal)

AtlanticOnBike – EuroVelo1

AtlanticOnBike develops and promotes sustainable tourism along one of the Europe’s longest and most spectacular cycle routes: EuroVelo 1 – Atlantic Coast Route. Stretching from Norway’s North Cape to Portugal’s Algarve, it connects regions through a continuous and safe cycling corridor, promoting low-carbon travel, linking rural, coastal and urban areas, and strengthening cross-border mobility and cohesion across Europe, into a shared mobility network.
Project website
DREAM_PACE
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  • Interreg Central Europe (Italy, Austria, Croatia, Germany, Hungary)

DREAM_PACE

Connecting people and places that matter, DREAM_PACE is transforming mobility in Central Europe by reaching destinations that conventional public transport often leaves behind. By integrating regular transport services with smart on-demand mobility, it enables people in rural and peripheral areas to access everyday destinations more easily. Combining local solutions with improved planning tools, it supports regions in building more inclusive, flexible, resilient, and future-proof transport systems.
Project website
Seamless Regional Mobility Łódź
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  • Poland

Seamless Regional Mobility Łódź

The EU-funded expansion of Łódź Agglomeration Railway has transformed regional mobility through the purchase of modern, accessible rolling stock and the development of an integrated multimodal transport system. Combined with tariff integration, close cooperation with cities and regional bus operators, and the expansion of its own bus network, the project delivers seamless, sustainable and inclusive travel across the region.
Project website
SmartCommUnity
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  • Interreg Alpine Space (Slovenia, Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland)

SmartCommUnity

SmartCommUnity transformed challenges across the Alpine Arc into sustainable, bottom-up transitions to build a greener, more connected region. The project successfully co-created tangible, smart solutions across diverse test areas. To scale these achievements, it launched a comprehensive web-based innovation platform, equipping rural communities with digital tools and AI insights; and by integrating the Smart Alps Network, it also enhanced participatory policies that strengthen local innovation and resiliency.
Project website

A SOCIAL AND INCLUSIVE EUROPE

Alternative Investment Finder
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  • Lithuania

Alternative Investment Finder

The Alternative Investment Detector (AID) project has helped vulnerable, socially excluded, and at-risk people return more quickly to the labour market and independent living. 72 different forms of support and new ideas for social integration – have been tested with NGOs. The project distinguished itself by cutting red tape and focusing more on tangible results – what truly helps people change their lives.
Project website
BROTHERS
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  • Germany

BROTHERS

Brothers is a pro-feminist violence prevention project aimed at creating spaces for reflection among (male) young people, school classes and professionals. It addresses topics such as identity(s), honour, migration, feminism and respect. Participating young men can actively contribute to designing workshops as ‘brothers’ in a peer-to-peer approach, sharing their experiences with their peers and promoting a more gender-equal society.
Project website
Doors to Employment
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  • France

Doors to Employment

While northern France continues to face high unemployment (9%) and poverty (18%) rates, the Pas-de-Calais Department is fully committed to supporting low-income households. Its Integration through Employment Mission helps 46,000 households receiving France’s minimum income benefit (RSA) move into employment. By coordinating local stakeholders and employers through innovative approaches and digital platforms, the mission’s 50-person team has helped 11,150 people return to work, supported by major construction and economic development projects.
Project website
Manifold More
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  • Finland

Manifold More

The Manifold more project advanced the employment opportunities and career development of highly educated women with immigrant backgrounds in Finland. Led by two national expert institutes (THL and FIOH), the project developed gender-aware and diversity-promoting human resource practices in expert organisations, strengthened the skills and employment prospects of immigrant-background women and challenged stereotypes associated with immigrant background women through research and expert communications.
Project website
Solidarity Network from Prague to Brno
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  • Czech Republic

Solidarity Network from Prague to Brno

People experiencing homelessness often lack access to essential services and face severe social exclusion. To address this, the project transforms cafés, shops and local spaces into places offering free services such as drinking water, toilet access and food. Launched in Prague, and successfully replicated in Brno, the project now includes 45 solidarity places in both cities providing more than 1,400 free services each month. This replicable model is transforming Czech cities into a more inclusive urban infrastructure.
Project website

A EUROPE CLOSER TO THE CITIZENS

BSR Cultural Pearls
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  • Interreg Baltic Sea Region (Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Denmark)

BSR Cultural Pearls

How can communities become stronger, more resilient, and their places more liveable? BSR Cultural Pearls invites smaller cities across the Baltic Sea region to compete by developing action plans that use culture to strengthen local resilience and cohesion. Supported by mentors and a transnational network, participating cities develop and test practical solutions to local vulnerabilities, building trust, encouraging civic participation and improving liveability while setting an example for others to follow.
Project website
Raudondvaris–Bauska: Heritage Without Borders
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  • Interreg Latvia–Lithuania (Latvia, Lithuania)

Raudondvaris–Bauska: Heritage Without Borders

By transforming historic sites into year-round destinations, the “Historic Road: Raudondvaris–Bauska” project brought cultural heritage to life through cross-border experiences, creative events and winter activities. By transforming how people engage with heritage, it attracted nearly 92,000 visitors and created lasting cooperation between Lithuania and Latvia.
Project website
Housing for Roma Inclusion
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  • Romania

Housing for Roma Inclusion

The Sepsi LAG Association implemented a housing desegregation project throughout a non-invasive, trauma sensitive relocation process of 32 Roma families from a segregated, marginalised urban community in the framework of the Community-led Local Development programme, implemented in Saint George, Romania. The relocation process came as complementary to the implementation of the Local Development Strategy that targeted 1000 marginalised people in three disadvantaged local communities.
Project website
Together in Žďár
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  • Czech Republic

Together in Žďár

Žďár nad Sázavou, a town of 20,000-inhabitants in the Czech inland periphery, used EU funding to renovate its public library and transform it into the town's civic heart. The library now hosts more than 900 events annually for all generations, from early literacy programme for toddlers to AI courses for seniors. It also serves as a platform where NGOs, volunteers and community groups organise their own activities. The library received the national City Library of the Year 2025 award and supports 106 smaller libraries.
Project website
Waterside Shared Village
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  • Peace Programme (Ireland-United Kingdom)

Waterside Shared Village

The Waterside Shared Village is a vibrant, EU-funded community hub in Derry/Londonderry that transformed a former ‘interface’ area into a shared space for increasing community connections. It features state-of-the-art sports facilities and a community hub, encouraging reconciliation and cross-community activity between Irish Street and Top of the Hill. In short, “Waterside Shared Village: where communities connect and sport unites, bringing people together at the heart of the Waterside."
Project website