Innovation Fund Large Scale bets on clean energies

Innovation Fund Large Scale call 2022-2023 doubles the budget of the previous one, with 3 billion euros earmarked to finance projects, mostly related to the ambitious aims of REPowerEU, the EU’s response to the energy crisis. One of them, smart investment, translates into the major milestone of paving the way to energy independence and accelerating the ecological transition.

With this call, the Innovation Fund – one of the most sought-after European funding programs for companies involved in the development of innovative low-carbon projects – is undergoing a major structural change this year, with four topics aligned with the REPowerEU plan:

• innovative electrification in industry and hydrogen: 1 billion euros;
• production of clean technologies (support for the production of components and end devices such as electrolysers and fuel cells, innovative equipment for renewable energies, energy storage or heat pumps): 700 million euros;
• medium-scale pilot projects to validate, test and optimize highly innovative solutions: 300 million euros;
• general decarbonization, available for all projects eligible under the Innovation Fund, except those corresponding to specific RePowerEU themes: €1 billion.

Clean technologies in Innovation Fund Large Scale call 2022-2023

Thus, this fourth Innovation Fund Large Scale call supports four types of clean tech projects with a CAPEX of more than 7.5 million euros. The deadline for submission is March 16, 2023.

Counting with 1.5 billion, the previous Innovation Fund Large Scale call sought to finance technologies related to renewable energy, energy-intensive industries, energy storage and carbon capture, use and storage. The European Commission received 139 projects, of which 17 were selected for implementation.

The grant awarded was 1.8 billion euros. Some of the projects that did not score enough to be funded were able to count on a support service for their development. In this way, they were able to improve their characteristics and apply for a new call for proposals.

Excellent results and a few keys

The Innovation Fund also offers opportunities to finance small-scale pre-commercial projects based on highly innovative technologies that are pioneers in their markets of application and have a significant potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This program provides lump sum grants to finance 60% of the relevant costs of projects that find it difficult to attract public and private investment due to the technological risks associated with their high innovative value.

At Zabala Innovation we have forged a great experience in supporting our clients in the presentation of projects to this program. Led from the Energy knowledge area, our team of experts, composed of multidisciplinary profiles, has achieved great results in the past calls.

On the one hand, in the first large-scale call, we contributed to the selection of Ecoplanta, one of the seven Innovation Fund projects chosen throughout Europe. On the other hand, in the first small-scale call, we helped our clients secure support to implement three of the 30 selected projects: AGGREGACO2, SUN2HY and SKFOAAS.

In the last small-scale call, 67% of the projects in which Zabala has supported in the development, have achieved success by being selected to receive a grant. These results show the strong positioning of Zabala Innovation as a reference consultant in European programs as competitive as Innovation Fund, one of the largest funds in the world focused on bringing innovative clean technology projects to the market. Thanks to the professionals and experience we have at Zabala Innovation, we can cover the wide range of sectors and technologies targeted by this program.

Seek help

We are aware of the work involved in preparing projects that are submitted to such powerful calls for proposals. For this reason, we recommend having a dedicated team of experts in the study of greenhouse gas emission reductions and visionaries in innovative technologies. It is also important to be rigorous in deciding the financial impact of the project both now and in the future.

Of particular importance is the balance between the required subsidy and the expected emission reductions of the project, to be as competitive as possible. The goal will be to provide Europe with a sustainable and long-lasting solution to current problems, projecting the novel technologies in different time frames.

The wide experience gotten by Zabala Innovation in the presentation of proposals to the European Commission in several calls for proposals supports us and allows us to offer a complete service in all the required aspects of the Innovation Fund.