General objective: to strengthen the integration process between the EU and the NCs by focusing on the European Research Neighborhood (ERN), improving fundamentally the understanding of institutional framework conditions of the ENP countries, their economic interactions with the EU in terms of people, capital, trade, knowledge, and innovation, in order to improve future definition and implementation of European Neighbouring Policies taking into account that "one size fits all" policy recommendations will not be appropriate due to the bilateral nature of the EU-ENP countries agreements. Specific objectives: 1. To provide a framework for the theoretical and empirical point of view about the relationships among the EU and the NCs. 2. To study, theoretically and empirically, the patterns of economic interaction between the EU and its neighbouring countries (NCs) and to estimate the sub-national effects of these interactions 3. To analyse the role of labour migration and its economic and social consequences (costs and benefits) both for destination (EU regions) and origin regions (neighbouring ones)  4. To investigate the extent to which the innovative performance of regions (EU27 and NC16) depends on endogenous ability in knowledge creation or on the capacity to absorb, adopt and imitate other regions’ innovations. 5. To identify the impact of changes in the institutional structure in the ENP countries and regions on the prospects for improved economic development and social cohesion 6. To extract and disseminated policy guidelines for policymakers in the EU and NCs to support the development of higher levels of economic integration for the growth, competitiveness and cohesion prospects of the two areas.