EU Innovation Fund commits €2.7bn to 54 net‑zero projects

Overview

The Innovation Fund has signed grant agreements for 54 projects selected under the 2024 Call for Net‑Zero Technologies, allocating a total of €2.7 billion to advance commercial deployment of decarbonisation technologies across Europe.

Funding and scale

Individual grants range from €1.8 million to €216 million; the projects span 17 countries and 17 industrial sectors—including refineries, cement and lime, manufacturing, renewable energy, and net‑zero mobility—and are expected to avoid about 210 million tonnes of CO₂ over their first ten years of operation.

Reserve projects

Six reserve‑list projects were invited to start grant agreement preparation and could receive up to €491 million in total, with individual grants between €17 million and €255 million; these projects target sectors such as renewable component manufacturing, electrolysers, lithium refining, glass and chemicals, and are projected to avoid roughly 20 million tonnes of CO₂ in their first ten years.

Timelines and process

Grant agreement preparation for the six newly invited projects is expected to be finalised by mid‑2026; CINEA will support the 54 signed projects through development, financial close and construction phases.

Call context

The IF24 Call allocated €2.4 billion across five topics and attracted 359 applications (over nine times the available budget); the IF25 Call, launched 4 December 2025 with a €2.9 billion budget, is open for applications until 23 April 2026 (17:00 CET).