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Climate Action

Project Development Assistance

Have you applied to the Innovation Fund, but not been awarded a grant? You may have the possibility to benefit from our Project Development Assistance (PDA). The goal of the PDA is to improve the maturity of your project through high-quality technical and financial advisory support provided by the European Investment Bank (EIB), and tailored to the needs of your project. Project Development Assistance should especially benefit small-scale projects and projects in lower-income Member States to help achieve a geographically balanced distribution of the Innovation Fund support. The PDA is available to both large and small-scale projects, and can help increase their chances of reaching financial close and entering into operation. You can submit your improved application to the Innovation Fund at the next relevant Innovation Fund call.

How can I apply?

When projects apply to the Innovation Fund, their eligibility and admissibility is checked first by CINEA, the European Climate Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency. Then, expert external evaluators appointed by CINEA evaluate all eligible and admissible projects. During the evaluation, the external evaluators propose projects for PDA support if they fulfill the specific conditions defined in each Innovation Fund call text.

Usually, these conditions include meeting the minimum requirements on some or all of the evaluation criteria and being assessed by the evaluators as having the potential to improve the maturity through a tailor-made PDA by the EIB.

In each Innovation Fund call, the maximum number of projects that CINEA can propose for PDA (longlist of eligible projects) and the maximum number of projects that EIB can propose for PDA (shortlist) are clearly defined.

Based on the maturity gaps and resulting PDA proposals indicated by CINEA’s evaluators, the EIB experts review each project from the longlist in terms of financial and technological maturity, and rank them using a points-based system. If several project proposals receive the same score, priority is given to those projects which have higher scores on greenhouse gas emission avoidance and on the degree of innovation. This results in a shortlist of eligible projects for PDA, which the EIB submits to the Commission for approval. After consultation with Member States, the Commission adopts the final list of projects from each call that will be offered PDA support.

If your project has been put on the longlist, CINEA will let you know. If the Commission awards PDA to your project based on the EIB shortlist, you will be contacted by the EIB to start preparing your PDA Agreement. If you are not shortlisted or awarded PDA, the EIB will inform you as well.

Approximately four months after the end of the evaluations, the EIB will inform all projects that have been selected for PDA and invite them to sign a PDA Agreement to define what their support will entail. Once a PDA Agreement is signed, the EIB will provide the tailor-made project development assistance for about four to six months.

For more information, you can consult the full lists of PDA-awarded projects in the first calls for large-scale and small-scale projects.

More information

For more information, you can consult the full lists of PDA-awarded projects in the first calls for large-scale and small-scale projects.

For more information about the project development assistance performed, you can consult the dedicated page of the European Investment Bank.