EU Innovation Fund awards €3.4 billion to 77 clean-tech projects

The European Commission selected 77 zero-focused technology projects to receive €3.4 billion in funding. The awards will be financed by the EU Innovation Fund, using money raised through the EU Emissions Trading System.

The selected projects are spread across 23 countries in the European Economic Area. They directly support the EU's goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2050.

The award announcement follows the Commission's launch in December 2025 of Innovation Fund calls for €5.2 billion of decarbonization technology funding proposals. The net-zero call covered general decarbonization projects of several scales, clean-tech manufacturing and pilots.

Around €1.6 billion was allocated to 12 large-scale decarbonization projects. Seventeen medium-scale projects were selected, requesting 458 million. Twenty small-scale projects were selected, requesting €124 million.

Twelve clean-tech manufacturing projects requesting nearly €900 million were selected. These include the production of components such as heat pumps, solar panels, electrolyzers and electric-vehicle batteries.

The selections included 16 pilot projects requesting around €394 million. For the first time, the selections included a small modular nuclear reactor project and a direct air carbon capture and storage project.

Project promoters must draw up grant agreements with the European Commission's European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency. The Commission plans to launch the next round of Innovation Fund calls in December 2026.