The Innovation Fund 2025 Net-Zero Technologies (IF25 NZT) call closed on 23 April 2026, receiving a total of 358 project proposals from 27 countries, confirming strong interest from European industry to innovate and decarbonise. The proposals submitted under this call requested a total of €17.5 billion in support – six times the available €2.9 billion budget. This high oversubscription continues the trend of previous Innovation Fund Net-Zero Technologies calls and underlines the continued demand for EU support for innovative clean technologies.
Sourced by the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), these funds will support the development and deployment of various net-zero technologies, making European industries cleaner and more competitive. If all projects requesting support were implemented, they could collectively avoid emitting an equivalent of 1.1 billion tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere over their first 10 years of operation, showing the strong project pipeline of decarbonisation projects being developed by European industry and seeking support for deployment.
Delivering on Europe’s industrial and climate agenda
In line with EU policy priorities, including the Clean Industrial Deal, the Net-Zero Industry Act, the Industrial Carbon Management Strategy, the REPowerEU Plan and the Critical Raw Materials Act, this call supports significant investments in decarbonisation and clean tech. Implementing the ResourceEU Action Plan, the IF25 NZT Call has dedicated €1 billion to clean tech manufacturing, also supporting critical raw materials value chains for clean tech applications in the EU.
The IF25 NZT Call confirms the gradual broadening of participation across Europe, also observed in the previous Innovation Fund calls, with project proposals located across 27 European Economic Area (EEA) countries. While some countries continue to lead in absolute numbers, increased participation from previously less-represented countries such as Malta, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Estonia, and Cyprus points to a more inclusive industrial transformation across Europe.
As in previous calls, the IF25 NZT call featured five topics under which projects could submit proposals. The distribution of the submitted proposals is consistent with previous calls:
- Large-scale projects received 104 (or 29%) of total proposals
- Medium-scale projects received 74 (or 21%) of total proposals
- Small-scale projects received 51 (or 14%) of total proposals
- Clean tech manufacturing received 50 (or 14%) of total proposals
- Pilots received 79 (or 22%) of total proposals
This diversity, both in terms of scale and market readiness, is essential to ensure the development of next-generation breakthrough technologies.
Key decarbonisation areas covered by the call relate to the following categories:
- Energy-intensive Industries, which attracted 158 proposals,
- Industrial Carbon Management with 28 proposals,
- Renewable Energy with 70 proposals,
- Energy Storage received 52 proposals, and
- Mobility, including Maritime, Aviation and Road Transport, together with the Buildings received 50 proposals.
In terms of sector coverage, the majority of eligible sectors are well represented. The largest number of proposals fall under cleantech manufacturing (of components or equipment for energy-intensive industries, energy storage and renewable energy), followed by the refineries (39), maritime (29) and chemicals (28) sectors. Compared with last year, the number of applications increased in the following sectors: aviation (15), road transport (8) and buildings (3).
Next Steps
Upon closure of the call, the evaluation process begins. Following the eligibility and admissibility checks, the proposals will be evaluated by external experts against the call’s award criteria, which include: degree of innovation, greenhouse gas emission avoidance potential, project maturity, replicability and cost efficiency. The results are expected to be communicated in by October 2026, with grant agreements prepared and signed thereafter.
As for previous Innovation Fund calls, all projects that meet the evaluation criteria will receive a STEP Seal awarded by the Commission, independently of whether or not they are selected for funding. STEP Seal projects are promoted by the Commission to recognise the quality of projects and help them to attract funding from other public or private sources.
In partnership with the European Commission, the European Investment Bank will provide Project Development Assistance (PDA) to support promising projects that were not selected for grant funding under the Innovation Fund calls or new projects aspiring to apply. Selected projects will receive tailored technical and financial advisory support to improve their maturity and increase their chances of success in future Innovation Fund calls.
