By 31.12.2025, a total of had been entered into the monitoring system of RIS3Thessaly 1199 registered projects with a public expenditure budget exceeding €155m from all funding sources (Thessaly Programme, Sectoral Programmes, Horizon2020 & HorizonEurope). Of these:
It shows the flow of project approvals per year. It is clear that the substantial activation of RIS3Thessaly began in 2024, with the first approvals from the Competitiveness Programme recorded in 2023 and the first approvals of the Thessaly Programme in 2025. Until then, the only source of funding was the European Union's Horizon Europe Programme.
Chart 2 provides an overview of the funding flow for approved projects from funding sources to specific objectives and priority sectors. By the end of 2025, across all funding sources and specific objectives, it is clear that the Environment-Circular Economy (04-ENVCE) and Tourism-Creative Industries-Culture (02-TCC) sectors stand out. This is due to the large number of projects in three actions of the Competitiveness Programme 2021-2027 (Green Transition of SMEs, Green Productive Investment of SMEs, and Strengthening the Establishment and Operation of New Micro and Small Tourism Enterprises). Projects under the action «Strengthening the Establishment and Operation of New Micro and Small Enterprises» were classified based on the investment NACE code in combination with the correlation of priority sectors with three-digit NACE codes during the MAA in Thessaly in spring 2024.
Table 1 gives the number of integrated projects and the financial figures in euros per funding source, and Table 2 the same data per specific objective.
Table 1: Projects and financial figures in terms of public expenditure by funding source.
| Funding Source | Works | Budget | Contracts | Payments |
| Horizon | 121 | 38 660 151 | 38 660 151 | 10 462 841 |
| Sectoral NSRF | 1031 | 107 305 051 | 70 475 772 | 9 627 269 |
| Regional NSRF | 46 | 9 060 520 | 449 293 | 0 |
| Grand Total | 1199 | 155 025 723 | 109 585 218 | 20 090 110 |
Source: Own elaboration based on monitoring system data.
Table 2: Projects and financial figures in terms of public expenditure by specific objective.
| Specific Objective | Works | Budget | Contracts | Payments |
| Research and Innovation | 163 | 48 195 971 | 39 584 745 | 10 462 842 |
| Digital Transformation | 12 | 4 530 001 | 4 530 001 | 881 584 |
| SME competitiveness | 1019 | 102 299 752 | 65 470 472 | 8 745 684 |
| Grand Total | 1199 | 155 025 723 | 109 585 218 | 20 090 110 |
A total of [number] are participating in the monitored projects 1,073 discrete beneficiaries based in Thessaly, of which 1,049 are businesses (781 existing and 268 under formation). Table 3 gives the statistics of participation by category, based on the Horizon programme classification. 22 of the 1,073 distinct beneficiaries participate in more than one project.
| Type | Number of beneficiaries | Number of Projects | Public expenditure of approved projects |
| Universities | 1 | 105 | 32 620 886 |
| Others | 9 | 25 | 5 296 625 |
| Businesses | 1049 | 1063 | 109 880 929 |
| Public sector | 10 | 20 | 2 921 810 |
| Research Centres | 4 | 18 | 3 896 450 |
The geographical distribution of the public expenditure budget so far across the four Prefectures of Thessaly shows that the Prefecture of Magnesia is in the lead with €73.21 million, followed by the Prefectures of Larissa (€49.13 million), Trikala (€19.76 million) and Karditsa (€11.32 million). It is noted that for research and innovation projects with the University of Thessaly as the beneficiary, the location was assigned based on the headquarters of the Department to which the person acting as the scientific coordinator of each project belongs.
With regard to the sectoral breakdown of public expenditure across all competitiveness and digital transformation initiatives for which projects have been included in Thessaly, we found that, in descending order of funding, the top sectorsfunding, in descending order, are the accommodation sector (NACE 55, €25.40 million, 24.26 % of total funding), retail trade (NACE codes 46 and 47, €12.43 million, 11.86 %), medical services (NACE 86, €11.84 million, 11.30 per cent of the total), catering (NACE 56, €8.18 million, 7.81 % of the total), rental and leasing activities (NACE 77, €3.98 million, 3.80 %) and the food industry (NACE 10, €3.65 million, 3.48% of the total).
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