The European Commission’s Innovation Fund is launching its third large scale call, with a total budget of EUR 3 billion.
The call will fund projects covering the following topics:
- General decarbonisation (budget: €1 billion) seeking innovative projects in renewable energy, energy-intensive industries, energy storage or carbon capture, use, and storage, as well as products substituting carbon-intensive ones (notably low-carbon transport fuels, including for maritime and aviation);
- Innovative electrification in industry and hydrogen (budget: €1 billion) seeking innovative projects in electrification methods to replace fossil fuel use in industry as well as renewable hydrogen production or hydrogen uptake in industry;
- Clean tech manufacturing (budget: €0.7 billion) seeking innovative projects in manufacturing of components as well as final equipment for electrolysers and fuel cells, renewable energy, energy storage and heat pumps;
- Mid-sized pilots (budget: €0.3 billion) seeking highly innovative projects in disruptive or breakthrough technologies in deep decarbonisation in all eligible sectors of the Fund. Projects should prove the innovation in an operational environment but would not be expected to reach large-scale demonstration or commercial production.
Projects will be assessed by independent evaluators according to their level of innovation, potential to avoid greenhouse gas emissions, operational, financial and technical maturity, scaling up potential and cost efficiency. The call is open for projects located in EU Member States, Iceland and Norway until 16 March 2023.
Projects can apply via the EU Funding and Tenders portal where information on the overall procedure is available. Applicants will be informed about the results of the evaluation in the second quarter of 2023. The grant awards and signature of projects will take place in the fourth quarter of 2023.
A webinar on lessons learned from the previous call and an Info Day will also be organised on 29 and 30 November 2022 respectively to give prospective applicants the opportunity to get information and ask questions on the new call.
In the interest of large promotion of the call, the Innovation Fund Team is also available to present it and its features in relevant external events in the next few months. If you are interested in such presentation, please send them an e-mail (CLIMA-IF-EXPERTGROUP@ec.europa.eu).