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Upcoming EU innovation Fund call: Key details


The Innovation Fund is one of the world's largest funding programs, focusing on deploying innovative low-carbon technologies to support the EU's transition to climate neutrality by 2050. It is financed through the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), with an estimated budget of around €40 billion from 450 million emission rights for the period 2020-2030.

Key aspects of the Innovation Fund include:

  • Financing highly innovative technologies and projects with significant emission reductions and European added value.

  • Supporting large-scale projects with investment costs over €100 million, medium scale projects with costs between €20 million and €100 million, small-scale projects with costs below €20 million, clean tech manufacturing projects and pilot projects. This year as separate Battery call is also organized to support investments in electric vehicle battery cell manufacturing.
  • Covering up to 60% of eligible costs, with grants in the range of tens and even hundreds of million euro being feasible. For pilot projects, the maximum funding is capped at €40 million.
     

The 5th call for proposals has opened on December 3, 2025, with submissions due by April 24, 2025. A budget of €2.4 billion is available for Net-Zero technologies, with an additional and separate budget of €1 billion for the Battery call.

The Innovation Fund aims to boost economic growth, create jobs, and reinforce European technological leadership globally. It supports a range of sectors, including energy-intensive industries, carbon capture, renewable energy generation, and energy storage, with a recent expansion to include net-zero mobility and buildings.

EY Belgium has a proven track record of success with the Innovation Fund. In the 4th call for example - for which the results have been recently announced - our cross-functional team helped secure significant funding, resulting in a tremendous stimulus for the realization of the client’s project. We can support Innovation Fund applications not only with technical grant writing but also with specialized expertise in GHG emission avoidance calculation and financial modelling provided by expert teams.

In case of any further questions with regard to these developments, please do not hesitate to reach out to your trusted EY person of contact.