€ 45.4 million extra funds for FET research to combat climate change in 2019
With increasing public concern about the effects of climate change, the European Commission has made research in this area a priority and aims to allocate 35% of the H2020 budget to this challenge.
The European Commission has been discussing changes to the 2019 Enhanced European Innovation Council (EIC) Work Programme to allocate an extra € 45.4 million in total to energy and climate change research in the EIC Pathfinder Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) proactive topics.
Following discussions with Member State representatives, the European Commission amended the H2020 EIC Work Programme for 2019 to update the 2 FET Proactive topics in the EIC Pathfinder. The main changes are:
- The call deadline will be postponed until 8 October 2019.
- The scope of sub-topic (c) of FETPROACT-EIC-05-2019 “Breakthrough zero-emissions energy generation for full decarbonisation” has been expanded to now include research on novel, advanced technologies for batteries, solar and fuel cells in addition to its previous subject areas. A budget of between € 35.4 million and € 52.4 million will now be reserved for this sub-topic.
- FET Open and Proactive projects that address the area of low-carbon energy and climate change technologies can now apply to the FETPROACT-EIC-06-2019 transition to innovation activities topic. Between € 10 million and € 13 million will be allocated to projects from this area.
Foundational research such as that supported by FET EIC Pathfinder will have an important role in developing new technologies to tackle this major challenge. Further calls for proposals addressing this topic are expected in European research programmes, both H2020 and its successor Horizon Europe, to build up the necessary technological know-how to make Europe a world leader in tackling climate change.
More information on the EIC and its 2018-2020 Work Programme is available on the European Commission website.