Innovation Fund: Lessons learnt from the applications to the 2020 calls

On 28 April, the Commission organised an online event on the first two calls for projects launched in 2020 under the Innovation Fund.

The event provided an overview of the project applications invited to the second stage of the large-scale call and discussed lessons learnt and best practices. It also provided an overview of the applications received for the small-scale call and presented the results of the applicants’ survey on the application process. Finally, it gave an outlook on the second round of Innovation Fund calls planned for the fourth quarter of 2021.

If you missed it, you can watch the recording and see the presentations below.

Agenda

• Welcome
• Large-scale call
  • statistics on the projects invited to second stage - Presentation by DG CLIMA
  • best practices and common mistakes in the applications - Presentation by ICF
  • Q&A
• 11.05-11.35: Small-scale call
  • statistics on applications received - Presentation by DG CLIMA
  • results from applicants’ survey - Presentation by ICF
• 11.35-11.45: Conclusions and next steps - Presentation by DG CLIMA

Background information

With its around €10 billion of support over 2020-2030, the Innovation Fund is one of the world’s largest funding programmes for the demonstration of innovative low-carbon technologies, aiming to bring to the market industrial solutions to decarbonise Europe.

The first call for large-scale projects (capital expenditure above EUR 7.5 million) opened on 3 July 2020 with a budget of EUR 1 billion for breakthrough technologies in renewable energy, energy-intensive industries, energy storage, and carbon capture, use and storage.

On 1 December 2020, the Commission launched the first call for small-scale projects (total capital costs between EUR 2.5 and 7.5 million) with a budget of EUR 100 million for breakthrough technologies in the same sectors.

The large-scale call closed on 29 October 2020 and the small-scale call on 10 March 2021. Evaluation by independent external evaluators is under way.

Location