Calls - regular grants

About

The Innovation Fund awards grants through calls for proposals and competitive bidding procedures (auctions). The Fund aims to finance a varied project pipeline achieving an optimal balance of a wide range of innovative technologies in all eligible sectors (energy intensive industries, renewable energy, energy storage, carbon, capture, use and storage, and net-zero mobility and buildings) in EU Member States, Iceland, Norway, and Liechtenstein.

At the same time, the projects need to be sufficiently mature in terms of planning, business model, and financial and legal structure.

Promising projects that are not sufficiently mature for a grant or not selected for funding due to budget limitations may benefit from the European Investment Bank's Project Development Assistance (PDA).

Award criteria

Projects that apply to the IF24 Call will be selected based on different criteria:

• effectiveness of greenhouse gas emissions avoidance
• degree of innovation
• project maturity
• replicability
• cost efficiency

Projects that apply to the IF24 Battery call will be evaluated based on seven award criteria: 

• effectiveness of greenhouse gas emissions avoidance
• degree of innovation
• project maturity
• replicability
• cost efficiency
• potential to reduce manufacturing carbon footprint
• security of supply and countering dependency on a single third country.

The detailed scoring and ranking methodology are set in each call for proposals.

Financing rates

The Innovation Fund supports up to 60% of the relevant costs calculated according to the methodology indicated in each call for proposals.

The grants are being disbursed in a flexible way based on project financing needs, considering the milestones achieved during the project lifetime.

For regular grants, up to 40% of the grant can be given based on pre-defined milestones before the whole project is fully up and running.