With a budget of €4 billion, the Commission has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting innovative projects that contribute to the EU’s green transition goals.

The Innovation Fund calls, funded by revenues from the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), are open to small, medium and large-scale projects and cover sectors including decarbonisation, cleantech manufacturing, and maritime and energy-intensive industries.

The Innovation Fund calls may offer opportunities for Hydrogen Valleys type of projects and other projects with large hydrogen production for single applications (e.g. industry).

The applications are open until 9 April 2024, 17:00 (CET).

Call structure and topics:

Project promoters are invited to apply under five distinct topics, each with specific budget and capital expenditure (CAPEX) requirements. These include:

1. General Decarbonisation (Large-scale): €1.7 billion available for projects with CAPEX above €100 million.
2. General Decarbonisation (Medium-scale): €500 million available for projects with CAPEX between €20 million and €100 million.
3. General Decarbonisation (Small-scale): €200 million available for projects with CAPEX between €2.5 million and €20 million.
4. Cleantech Manufacturing: €1.4 billion available for projects with CAPEX above €2.5 million, focusing on manufacturing components for renewable energy, energy storage, heat pumps, and hydrogen production.
5. Pilot: €200 million available for projects with CAPEX above €2.5 million, focusing on deep decarbonisation.

Take a look at the Info Day session, where stakeholders were informed about the new features of this call. The presentations are available here.

More information:

• Innovation Fund 2023 Call
• European Commission's press release
• Question & Answers
• Innovation Fund announces two upcoming calls for proposals
• Results of previous Innovation Fund calls for proposals
• Innovation Fund projects portfolio
• Innovation Fund projects dashboard