The Innovation Fund is one of the key tools Brussels is betting on, playing a major role in the landscape of European funds dedicated to the energy transition. For this reason, today, in the first week of its new mandate, the European Commission has launched two new Innovation Fund 2024 calls: one (IF24 Call) focused on promoting innovative decarbonization technologies, and another unprecedented one dedicated to electric vehicle batteries (IF24 Battery).
Considering that December 3rd is also the opening date of the second European hydrogen auction by the European Hydrogen Bank, which has €1.2 billion available, the total budget Brussels has put on the table today for technological innovation in the energy transition amounts to €4.6 billion.
All these instruments aim to strengthen the EU's leadership and production capacity in innovative and cutting-edge net zero technologies, while pursuing the path towards climate neutrality by 2050.
How the Innovation Fund Works
The Innovation Fund is one of the largest funding programs in Brussels supporting innovative net zero and low CO2 emission technologies, which could mobilize around €40 billion by 2030. The Fund focuses on so-called clean tech, the technologies at the heart of the Green Deal Industrial Plan and STEP, the European platform to strengthen the production of critical emerging technologies relevant to the EU's green and digital transitions and strategic sovereignty. The Innovation Fund is thus a fundamental tool for achieving Europe's ecological transition, which has already allocated about €6.5 billion to 104 projects under implementation.
