Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI
Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI

Project

Support services for the Innovation Fund (2019-2024)

The Innovation Fund (IF) is a core EU policy instrument for helping bring to market industrial solutions to decarbonise Europe and support its transition to climate neutrality. Based on its size and focus, supporting the final steps in the deployment of breakthrough clean technologies, where the inherent project and financial risks are largest, the IF has a unique place in the European ecosystem of funding support.

This ongoing series of projects covers the support to the European Commission on all Innovation Fund operations (launching the calls, application period (helpdesk), evaluations and monitoring, communications and surveys) and improvement of methodology for the award criteria: potential for GHG emission avoidance, degree of innovation, project maturity, replicability and cost efficiency, including relevant cost aspects.

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The EU Innovation Fund (IF) aims to create financial incentives for companies and public authorities to invest in the next generation of low-carbon technologies today. It also aims to make EU companies global technology leaders. The IF is the successor to NER 300, the EU programme to support the demonstration of carbon capture and storage and innovative renewable energy technologies, and extends its scope to energy storage and energy-intensive industries, aviation, maritime, road transport and buildings.

In the beginning of this series of projects, the objective was to support the European Commission (DG CLIMA) with the preparation of the first call for proposals to be issued under the Innovation Fund. In particular:

  • the identification of generic project examples and reference plants;
  • the development of methodology, guidance and tools to calculate the relevant costs of specific projects;
  • the development of methodology and guidance to calculate the GHG emission avoidance potential of specific projects in cooperation with the Joint Research Centre (JRC); and,
  • the development and testing of scoring and ranking methodologies for two of the five selection criteria, i.e. effectiveness in terms of greenhouse gas emission avoidance potential and efficiency in terms of the relevant costs of the project.

Building on the preparatory work completed for the Commission to date, the objective of the current project is to provide assistance for the preparation and management of the 2023 (fourth) round of the IF calls for proposals, for both large-scale and small-scale projects. This includes specifically:

  • Support in the improvement of the methodology for future calls through (1) the collection of feedback from IF stakeholders (applicants, evaluators, PDA beneficiaries) and (2) the assessment and provisions of input on all award criteria; and,
  • Support in the analysis and the communication of results to increase not only the number of applications but also the quality and the diversity of the proposed projects through (1) events and (2) project fiches.

  • Evaluation, reviewing, assessment
  • Accompanying research
  • Development of methodology
  • Policy analysis
  • Innovation and technology analysis, technology assessment, diffusion analysis

Duration

From October 2019 until September 2024

Client

European Commission (DG CLIMA)

Partner

ICF (lead)