The REALIZE project, in collaboration with the H2IF, 2DPLOY and LEADSsister-projects[1]”, organised a session on the Innovation Fund as part of the Cleantech for Europe Summit.

Taking place on 26 September 2024 in Brussels, the Cleantech for Europe Summit gathered policy and cleantech leaders to discuss the European competitiveness and industrial leadership. The event included panel discussions on a clean industrial deal for Europe and the competitiveness of clean manufacturing, presentations from clean technologies industry leaders, breakout sessions, and networking opportunities.

The panel of the “Clinic: How to build a successful Innovation Fund application” session was composed of Jan-Erik Hanssen (1-Tech – REALIZE), Martin Bracken (CLERENS – H2IF), Joren Mijnendonckx (VITO – 2DPLOY) and Greg Arrowsmith (EUREC – REALIZE). Moderation was by Greg Arrowsmith and Federico Spadaro (CLERENS – H2IF).

The session gave the opportunity to the 15 participants, cleantech ‘start-ups’ and ‘scale-ups’ (including a few in renewable energy), to get answers to questions they had sent earlier to the panel. Questions focused on the evaluation criteria, viability of clean technologies, key factors for a winning application, and GHG calculation, among others. The panel also shared its view on the latest news on the Innovation Fund.

A similar event in an online format is planned for 19 December, by which point this year’s Innovation Fund call for proposals is expected to be published. Participants were satisfied with the session and slides prepared as answers were made available to the participants.

This was the first joint event between REALIZE and its sister-projects. We will continue our efforts to promote the project and organise joint activities in the coming months.


[1] Projects funded under the topic ‘HORIZON-CL5-2023-D2-01-07 – Support for the deployment of R&I results for climate mitigation. Synergies with the ETS Innovation Fund