Expert Mini-seminars: Innovation Fund and Digital Europe

In cooperation with AFI members and partners, we regularly prepare seminars on professional topics for CzechInvest managers. The topic of Tuesday's seminar was "The Innovation Fund and Digital Europe", which was led by Enviros representatives Jan Hanuš, CEO, and Jan Staněk, Director of the GRANT Division.

Innovation Fund is a European Union programme aimed at supporting innovation in low-carbon technologies and solutions to help decarbonise industry and energy and support the transition to a sustainable economy. The Fund supports not only large projects but also smaller initiatives, known as 'small-scale projects'. The activity is financed from the proceeds of auctioning emission allowances and is a key tool for achieving the Green Deal objectives.  The high demands for innovation, feasibility and financial efficiency are strict criteria in the evaluation of applications, but the high level of funding provided by the fund makes it possible to implement ground-breaking projects and technologies.  

Successful Czech projects supported by the Innovation Fund include the production of green hydrogen for transport in the Frýdek-Místek heating plants for bus, train and truck transport or the new technology of laser welding of aluminium battery coolers in electric cars in Žatec. Interesting European projects are, for example, the "HYBRIT" project in Sweden, where green hydrogen replaces traditional steel production methods and reduces CO₂ emissions by up to 90% by using hydrogen as a reducing agent during the processing of iron ore and the by-product of the production process is not CO₂ but water. The 'K6 Carbon Capture' project in the Netherlands captures the massive volume of CO₂ produced at a chemical plant in Rotterdam and diverts it through underground pipelines to a deep storage site in former mining sites under the seabed.

Digital Europe programme is aimed at supporting the digital transformation of society and the economy and strengthening Europe's technological self-sufficiency. With a total budget of €7.5 billion for the period 2021-2027, it funds areas such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, advanced digital skills and the deployment of digital technologies and semiconductor chip manufacturing. CzechInvest is the national contact point for the Digital Europe programme.