Innovation fund

The Innovation Fund is one of the world’s largest funding programmes for the demonstration of highly innovative technologies and big flagship projects within Europe that can bring on significant emission reductions. It is about sharing the risk with project promoters to help with the demonstration of first-of-a-kind highly innovative projects.

Important dates

• 26 October 2022: Launch of the second large-scale call
• 3 March 2022: Deadline for the submission of applications
• 31 March 2022: Launch of the second small-scale call
• Late August 2022: Deadline for the submission of applications

Maritime-specific criteria

• Vessels to be built in a European shipyard
• Vessels to sail between European ports

Award criteria

1. GHG emission avoidance

• Absolute GHG emission avoidance (tCO2)
• Relative GHG emission avoidance (%)
• Quality & credibility of the calculation, other GHG emission savings, net carbon removals

2. Degree of innovation

• How much beyond state-of-the-art: first-of-a-kind commercialization at large-scale
• Impact on other EU policy objectives: energy efficiency, circularity, deployment of renewable energy

3. Project maturity

• Technical: feasibility study including project design and technical risks
• Financial: business plan including profitability and financing structure
• Operational: project implementation plan including permitting procedures, contracts with customers and suppliers

4. Scalability

Market potential for widespread application

at project & regional level

• Further expansion at project site, including sector coupling
• Cooperation with regional economy
• Strategy and knowledge sharing

at sector level

• potential GHG emission avoidance for sector, # installations
• taking account of supply and demand conditions such as expected cost reductions and resource constraints

at economy level

• potential GHG emission avoidance across economy, taking into account size of the sector and potential of GHG emission avoidance in other sectors
• impact on competitiveness and supply chains within the EU

5. Cost efficiency

• Requested support per ton of CO2