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Overview
The EU Innovation Fund is one of the world's largest funding programmes for demonstrating innovative low-carbon technologies, channelling around €38 billion between 2020 and 2030 directly from the revenues of Europe's carbon market, the Emissions Trading System (ETS) — the scheme that makes polluters pay for their greenhouse-gas emissions. It does not back lab science or early prototypes; it pays to build the first commercial-scale plants that decarbonise heavy industry, energy, hydrogen, carbon capture and clean-tech manufacturing. Grants cover up to 60% of the additional capital and operating costs of a project, and individual awards in the latest round ran from €1.8 million to €216 million. The flagship 2025 Net-Zero Technologies (NZT) call put €2.9 billion on the table across five topics; it closed on 23 April 2026 with 358 applications requesting €17.5 billion — six times the budget — and results are expected by October 2026. Separate auctions (the Hydrogen Bank and an industrial-heat auction) pay a fixed premium per unit of clean output rather than a grant.
Is this for you?
Success rates — the honest picture
Roughly 1 in 6 applications gets funded. A sharp, evidence-backed proposal is what separates the funded from the rejected.
Eligibility
- 1Open to any legal entity — single company or consortium — established in an EU Member State, Iceland or Norway (the EEA EFTA states inside the ETS).
- 2The project must deploy highly innovative low-carbon technologies that are not yet commercially available but are mature enough to build at scale: commercial demonstration, not research.
- 3Maturity spans roughly TRL 6-9 — pilots at TRL 6-7, and the small/medium/large/clean-tech-manufacturing topics at commercial-demonstration maturity (TRL 8+).
- 4Eligible sectors include energy-intensive industries, renewable energy, energy storage, carbon capture/use/storage (CCS/CCU) and clean-tech manufacturing for renewables, storage, heat pumps and hydrogen.
- 5The project must deliver significant, quantifiable greenhouse-gas emission reductions versus a credible conventional baseline — the most heavily scrutinised number in the whole application.
- 6Capital expenditure must meet the topic threshold: above €100M (large-scale), €20M-100M (medium), €2.5M-20M (small), and above €2.5M (clean-tech manufacturing and pilots).
- 7Proposals are scored on five award criteria: GHG-avoidance effectiveness, degree of innovation, project maturity, replicability and cost efficiency.
How to Apply
- 1
Run the official self-check questionnaire first to confirm your project clears the eligibility, maturity and GHG-avoidance bar before committing months to a full proposal.
- 2
Pick your topic by capital expenditure: large-scale (above €100M), medium (€20M-100M), small (€2.5M-20M), clean-tech manufacturing or pilots — each has its own budget and threshold.
- 3
Build the greenhouse-gas avoidance case: absolute and relative emissions avoided over the first ten years versus a credible baseline, calculated strictly per the call methodology — this is the decisive score.
- 4
Assemble the technical and financial package — engineering design, costed estimate, financing plan, permitting status, off-take and a sharp innovation argument that proves the plant is genuinely shovel-ready.
- 5
Submit a single-stage proposal on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal: register your organisation, complete the forms and upload the technical annex before 17:00 CEST on the deadline.
- 6
Independent experts then score the five award criteria; selected projects enter grant agreement preparation and typically sign roughly 9-12 months after the deadline.
Typical Budget Breakdown
2026 Deadlines
Key Features
Frequently Asked Questions
Not the EU budget. The Innovation Fund is financed by revenues from auctioning allowances under the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), so the total over 2020-2030 — around €38 billion — depends on the carbon price.
Grants cover up to 60% of the additional capital and operating costs — the extra cost of the clean option versus a conventional plant — not 60% of the entire project budget.
Any legal entity, alone or in a consortium, established in an EU Member State, Iceland or Norway. There is no SME-only restriction — large industrials, utilities and dedicated project companies all compete in the same calls.
Not really. It funds first-of-a-kind commercial demonstration of technologies that already work at pilot scale but are not yet commercially deployed — roughly TRL 6-9, with pilots at the lower end (TRL 6-7) and most topics expecting TRL 8+. For research and prototypes, use Horizon Europe or the EIC.
In the 2024 call, 61 of 359 applications were selected — about 17%. The 2025 call, closed on 23 April 2026, drew 358 applications requesting €17.5 billion against a €2.9 billion budget — demand exceeded supply roughly six-to-one. Results are expected by October 2026.
Auctions — the Hydrogen Bank for renewable hydrogen and a separate industrial-heat auction — pay a fixed premium per unit of clean output rather than a lump-sum capital grant. You bid the lowest premium you need to make the project viable.
Selected projects enter grant agreement preparation and typically sign roughly 9-12 months after the call deadline, with payments then released against agreed project milestones.
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View programme →AI-powered EU funding guidance
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