The call was published on Friday and presented at a news conference in Ljubljana on Tuesday featuring the ministers responsible for education, economy and cohesion.

These labelled the call an important step in the efforts to boost competitiveness and link stakeholders from science and basic research to creation of value added in the market.

The joint call follows a major government goal, Minister of Development, Strategic Projects and Cohesion Alenka Smerkolj said, adding that the goal of the call was to connect science, research and business.

The call, which is the first after the endorsement of the strategy of smart specialisation, is designed to test requirements and terms, and possibly introduce some changes before a package of calls for the current EU budget period is prepared in early 2017.

The first call is valued at EUR 67m, of which EUR 53.6m will come from the European Regional Development Fund. It is divided into two sections.

The first is designed to encourage R&D programmes of consortia linking the academic sphere and business and which bring together expertise and skills for development of new products, services and technologies.

It is the first call of the European Regional Development Fund in the current budget period for investment in growth and new jobs.

"That's what our cooperation is aimed at - how research, science and education on the one hand together with the economy can create products, services and solutions that not only generate value added in the market but also jobs," Minister of Education, Science and Sport Maja Makovec Brenčič said.

The first section is valued at EUR 55m, of which EUR 16.5m for 2016, with lower sums available for each year until 2021. Each individual programme can get up to EUR 6m.

In the second section businesses will be offered support from the prototype to the first product. "We want to back research and development also in private companies," Minister of Economic Development and Technology Zdravko Počivalšek said.

In this section of the call, EUR 12m is available in 2016, with a total of EUR 90m planned after that.

This year, the ministry would like to co-fund at least 24 innovative, R&D projects of companies or consortia of companies. An individual project will be able to get between EUR 100,000 and 500,000.

The Economy Ministry is planning to issue 25 calls this year at the total amount of EUR 47.5m, the first eleven of which will be published by the end of March. A total of EUR 198.3m will be available for the entire 2016-2023 period.