Call for proposals: Europe is investing €300.5 million in clean hydrogen technologies

Mar 7

The Clean Hydrogen Partnership is launching its first call for proposals – over €300 million will be made available for supporting projects, in an unprecedented drive to boost the development of cutting-edge hydrogen and fuel cell technologies.

Through its first call for proposals, the Clean Hydrogen Partnership will provide €300.5 million to support projects that boost renewable hydrogen production, reduce its costs, develop its storage and distribution solutions, and stimulate the use of low carbon hydrogen in hard to abate sectors, such as energy intensive industries, aviation or heavy duty transport.

The call will also continue to help stimulating the deployment of “hydrogen valleys” across Europe, complex projects that cover the entire hydrogen value chain in a specific region, scaling-up hydrogen deployment and creating interconnected hydrogen ecosystems across Europe.

A novelty is that it foresees several “flagship projects”, which are expected to have a significant impact in accelerating the transition to a hydrogen economy. The applications to be successfully demonstrated by these flagship projects could further enter the market deployment stage and be replicated at scale (or on a commercial basis).

It will also support a “strategic research challenge”, which will employ a multidisciplinary approach to address the sustainability and criticality of electrolyser and fuel cell materials.

Bart Biebuyck, Executive Director of the Clean Hydrogen Partnership, said: “this momentous investment is essential to ensure the development of a dynamic hydrogen economy of diverse innovators, manufacturers, producers and end-users across the EU for a sustainable and prosperous hydrogen-based future”.

The call is advancing the key priorities identified by the new Strategic Research Agenda of the Clean Hydrogen Partnership, adopted by the Governing board on 25 February.

A total of 41 topics will be part of the call for proposals, including 10 for renewable hydrogen production, 11 for hydrogen storage and distribution, 8 for transport and 4 for heat and power. In addition, 5 projects will support cross-cutting issues. This call will also support 2 hydrogen valleys and 1 strategic research challenge.

The topics will be grouped into 10 Innovation Actions (IA), 29 Research and Innovation Actions (RIA) and 2 Coordination and Support Action (CSA). 6 Innovation Actions considered of strategic importance are selected as flagship projects covering renewable hydrogen production, transport applications and Hydrogen Valleys.

The Call for Proposals will have two deadlines, with the budget allocated as follows:

Budget (EUR)

Publication

Deadline

First deadline

Second deadline

Overall indicative budget

179.50

121.00

300.50

1 March 2022

31 May 2022