Innovation orientation is a guiding principle of the programme. What does "innovation" mean in this context?

1. Innovation is not merely the creation of something new but the use of existing sources and resources, its re-combination to new products and services, its combination with new methods and procedures and its de-construction and re-construction. This concept of innovation contains also the element of implementation – innovation is something new that needs to be implemented.

2. Innovation has to be context-oriented. The context is given by the territory. Its values, cultural and natural resources shall lie at the basis of innovation. The needs and demands of the cooperation area, such as the mountain orientation must be at the very heart of every project.

3. Innovation through cooperation can often be achieved only by an integrated approach. This can be vertically (different levels of government), horizontally (different policy sectors and actors) and geographically (across administrative boundaries). The integration of relevant actors into a consortium is a success factor for projects.

Innovation often takes place where different sectors, traditions and administrations meet. The programme expects of its projects that they follow this approach. Projects must demonstrate how the composition of the partnership specifically enables them to reach their goals. They must be able to demonstrate how different sectors, different levels of governance and geographical background can add value.

(Source: Alpine Space Programme - Terms of References for the second call for project proposals)

Part of the Interreg Community Initiative, the Interact programme was established to provide more information and to facilitate the flow of best practices coming from the Interreg initiative.

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Community Initiative articulated in three strands*:
1) Cross-border cooperation
2) Transnational cooperation
3) Interregional cooperation

This initiative aimed at assuring a balanced development of the Union’s territory through the strengthening of the cooperation and the development of synergies between different Member States’ actors.

The Interreg Community Initiative was launched in 1990 in order to prepare a Union without internal frontiers. In the period 2000-2006 it reached the 3^rd edition having a growing success.

With the present programming period, Interreg does not exist anymore as a Community Initiative but it has been upgraded to an Objective itself of the Regional Policy of the EU with the name of European Territorial Cooperation (ETC). This change means not only more funds available for the cross-border, the transnational and the interregional cooperation, but also higher priority on the political agenda of the EU as well as higher visibility and expectations from this objective.
 
(*Respectively, the former IIIA, IIIB and IIIC strands during the 2000-2006 programming period.)

Part of the C strand of the ETC (as well as of the former Interreg III Community Initiative), its aim is to promote exchange and transfer of knowledge and best practices among the European regions. During the 2000-2006 programming period the programme was divided into 4 areas (respectively: north, east, south and west programmes). With the ETC there is only one programme that comprises all European regions (plus Switzerland and Norway).

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“Created by the ForumAlpinum in 1999, [its] main purposes [is] to stimulate interdisciplinary research of relevance for the Alps, to ensure the continuity and the scientific quality of the ForumAlpinum to promote international co-operation in Alpine research and to take up research topics in the interest of the Alpine Convention and advise the responsible authorities for that Convention.” *

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(*Source: www.alpinestudies.ch/iscar)