The Innovation Fund is an essential resource for promoting renewable energy technologies in Europe and is essential for the success of the project.
The Innovation Fund, a major financial instrument for European Union climate policy, plays a key role in achieving the EU’s commitment to climate and economy. In other words, its purpose goes beyond decarbonisation. They are also trying to strengthen Europe’s competitiveness. As Europe continues to develop energy markets through manufacturing capabilities, innovation and strengthening supply chain resilience, more projects are heading towards innovation funds to sponsor innovative energy technology development.
I look forward to the European Competitiveness Fund
Investment is key to maximizing the potential of renewable energy technologies and to advance through the innovation pipeline. In the European energy (and industrial) sector, this is essential to decarbonisation, reducing GHG emissions and contributing to further deployment of renewable energy. As Europe aims to increase its competitiveness and further increase the decarburizing industry, a financial toolbox, including the Innovation Fund, is important. Future European Competitiveness Funds should build on lessons learned from the Innovation Fund, expand financial products and continue to support the deployment of innovative renewable technologies through a stable, substantial budget.
Therefore, the Innovation Fund is an important opportunity for renewable energy projects to develop and deploy technology on a wider scale. However, innovation fund applications are not easy. You need a dedicated team that can thoroughly analyze your requirements and assemble high-quality, ultimately successful applications.
There are currently several coordination and support actions (CSAs) in progress, and are intended to guide project promoters who have already successfully completed Horizon Projects towards market deployment, and to provide guidelines for innovation funds or alternative financing processes. Among them are renewable energy-focused realization projects aimed at presenting a portfolio of innovative renewable generation technologies across the renewable energy sector. The project will allow these renewable energy technologies to advance towards commercialization by providing expertise in the Innovation Fund and its application process, as well as other European and national funding schemes.
Know the key to successful applications
First, competitiveness is an important factor in shaping the European investment environment. The weaknesses in the energy sector can significantly limit the ability of companies to develop competitive, technically advanced products. For example, the European solar power (PV) market remains relatively underdeveloped. Showing how a project will affect European competitiveness and the European energy market is a necessary component of the successful project proposal.
High costs represent a major barrier to market deployment, and must be addressed thoroughly, especially in large energy-intensive companies that carry the highest ETS burden. Innovation funds focus on specific eligibility requirements, such as financial maturity and GHG emission avoidance. Systems and social integration also play a key role in application success. Applicants should clearly demonstrate a full understanding of how a project fits into a larger system, including analyzing potential risks and analyzing well-defined strategies to mitigate them and overcome deployment challenges.
Finally, internal resources make a huge difference throughout the lifecycle of a project from start to final conclusion. Personnel and expertise need to properly address foreseen challenges, plan strategies properly, build external support, and properly allocate resources to improve success rates. Commercial challenges require as much attention as technical challenges.
David García Arrate (Euro-Funding), who has been the project coordinator, said: “The transition from Horizon Europe to the Innovation Fund is an important step for many projects. Our goal is to help researchers and innovators in the renewable energy sector navigate the complexity of the innovation fund application process and ensure the best chances to secure groundbreaking ideas.”
Avoid common mistakes
Frequent mistakes made by applicants include presenting inconsistent or incomplete data and failing to provide sufficient evidence or justification for important assumptions. For example, expected revenues often assume a specific purchase or sale price, but some applications cannot provide evidence to support that data. Other challenges include the lack of ability to define clear reference cases and the lack of clear, consistent, realistic business plans. In addition to economic clarity, there can be a lack of technical elements. Applications should include not only clear evidence in terms of scale-up capabilities and technical feasibility, but also structured strategies for developing and scaling up innovation feasibility and pipelines. In summary, demonstrating both financial and technical maturity is essential to a successful innovation fund application.
If you are interested in joining Realize Consortium in time for the next innovation fund call in 2026, feel free to contact us.
The Innovation Fund, loaned by the EU Emissions Trade System, is one of the world’s largest funding programs for the demonstration of innovative low-carbon technologies. The fund focuses on highly innovative clean technologies and large flagship projects with added value from Europe that can significantly reduce emissions and greenhouse gas emissions.
Realize Project aims to present a new portfolio of renewable energy generation technologies to the EU innovation fund through proposals stemming from the completion of the Horizon Renewable Energy Source Project.
This article will also be featured in the 22nd edition of Quarterly Publication.
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