On Thursday, 4 December, the European Commission announced the launch of three new calls for projects to be funded by the Innovation Fund up to a total of €5.2 billion, which will come from EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) revenues.
With a budget of €2.9 billion, the ‘Net-Zero Technologies’ (IF25 NZT) call supports “highly innovative” and “sufficiently mature” decarbonisation projects – specifically in the areas of renewable energy component manufacturing, energy storage, heat pumps, and hydrogen – with a special incentive for initiatives carried out by SMEs. This call is open until 23 April 2026.
With a budget of €1.3 billion, the European Hydrogen Bank’s third auction will fund renewable or low-carbon hydrogen production by offering fixed premiums for verified production over ten years. This call is open until 19 February 2026.
The first call for projects to decarbonise industrial process heat, within the framework of the Decarbonisation Bank (€1 billion), will support electrified and renewable heating solutions while rewarding projects offering the lowest CO2 emission abatement costs. This call is open until 19 February as well.
Member States can add national funding with an ‘Auctions-as-a-Service’ scheme, providing additional support to projects that satisfied the evaluation criteria but were not selected to receive funding from the Innovation Fund due to budgetary constraints. Germany and Spain have already confirmed they will participate in this scheme.
To see the calls for projects: https://aeur.eu/f/jty (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)