EU Innovation Fund

The EU Innovation Fund is one of the world’s largest funding programmes for the demonstration of innovative low-carbon technologies. It aims to deploy innovative net-zero technologies for climate neutrality through project funding. The programme is funded by the sales of EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) allowances such that emitters indirectly fund the technologies that can help them avoid ETS costs in future. Based on a carbon price of EUR 75/tonne plan to have a total funding budget of €40 billion for the 2020-2030 period. The scope has recently been broadened to allocate more of the funds to manufacturing scale-up and via auctions for performance-based payments to hydrogen projects (European Hydrogen Bank). The 2023 call (USD 5 billion) included USD 220 million for pilot projects larger than USD 2.7 million each, and the Horizon Europe 2024 call included USD 22 million for the demonstration of advanced biofuels and synthetic fuels for transport, and USD 41 million for wave energy. In return for public funding, the project developers and European Commission commit to sharing knowledge from the project.

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