H2IF has conducted an interview with Antonio Ferrandez, Policy Officer at the Directorate General for Research & Innovation (DG RTD) of the European Commission. The interview focused on the features of the recent Horizon Europe Clean Industrial Deal (CID) call for proposals and its importance in supporting R&I scale-up to market across Europe. The interview delved into ways in which high potential businesses within areas like energy storage and renewable energy can be further assisted as they grow and bring new technology to market.
The interview also touched on the existing disconnect between research and innovation (R&I) and successful market deployment. In addition, lessons learned and best practices were shared regarding how to enhance the innovation landscape across Europe and enable breakthrough innovation to scale up effectively.
Can you briefly describe the CID and why this is particularly relevant for SMEs/scale-ups, willing to upscale their R&I results to the market?
The Clean Industrial Deal addresses the need to direct investment towards infrastructure and industry in support of industrial decarbonisation, resilience, growth and competitiveness.
Our R&I contribution to the plan was the design of a Horizon Europe horizontal call to support a new generation of demonstrators in clean tech and decarbonised industry that are not only technologically strong, but also close to market deployment. Its explicit purpose is to foster synergies between R&I funding and downstream deployment instruments such as the Innovation Fund, thereby helping to bridge the gap between Horizon Europe projects and large-scale market uptake.
This is particularly relevant for SMEs and scale-ups that already have promising R&I results but need support to move from demonstration towards commercial deployment. Many innovative EU-funded projects have delivered strong technical results, yet have not been deployed commercially at the speed or scale needed. The CID horizontal call is therefore focused on “fit-for-deployment” projects, market readiness, industrialisation, credible business planning, and leverage of further public/private investment. This makes the instrument especially attractive for companies seeking to de-risk scale-up and build a path to market, although proposals are still expected to be industry-led with a strong value-chain consortia.
What are the main novelties of the CID-related call for proposal, and how do they differ from “regular” Horizon Europe Innovation Actions?
Compared with a regular Horizon Europe Cluster 4 or 5 calls, the CID horizontal call introduced several important features:
- The call is intentionally bottom-up, non prescriptive and open to new ideas, and industry-led, with applicants free to choose the specific value chain or technology innovation to address.
- Both topics are explicitly designed for fit-for-deployment projects, starting at TRL 6 and targeting TRL 7-8, meaning projects must go beyond technical demonstration and show readiness for market uptake, industrialisation and follow-up investment
- A business plan and a credible market-readiness strategy are mandatory parts of the proposal. These must be backed by the participating companies and updated during project implementation
- The proposals require a clear go/no go moment before the demonstration phase. Before passing that milestone, projects are expected to advance some important details, such as engineering plans, a techno-economic assessment, a credible pathway to permits, etc.
There is a balanced portfolio mechanism: funding will not be based only on ranking, but also aims to ensure coverage of each of the three main technology areas under each topic, provided proposals pass all thresholds.
What are the key points to consider when applying to the CID call for proposal? What should be prioritised in the proposal narrative and what is expected by the European Commission and evaluators?
Applicants should prioritise in their narrative how they will contribute to the Clean Industrial Deal objectives.
Projects must be clearly positioned as fit for deployment and their business cases must be central, not secondary. Proposals should show how the solution has market relevance while also demonstrating technological feasibility, and a realistic pathway to commercialisation after the project.
Industrial leadership and consortium composition matter significantly. The consortium should be industry-driven, with a justified and manageable size, effective value-chain coverage, and a clear role for the industrial partner(s) that will lead deployment.
And applicants should focus on quantifiable impact since proposals are expected to demonstrate measurable contributions to competitiveness, GHG reduction, resilience, circularity and, where relevant, biodiversity benefits.
Can you comment on the recently closed first round of CID calls (September 2026) and on the preliminary results available (e.g., over-/under-subscription, prevalence of some technologies, high-level quality and alignment of proposals, etc.)? Do you think that, as of today, these results are aligned to expectations?
Since the call was designed and launched, it has received very positive response from industry. This is reflected in the strong number of proposals submitted: 57 under the topic of decarbonisation of energy intensive industries and 87 under Clean Technologies for Climate Action.
Unfortunately, at this stage I cannot share further details about the stay of play of the evaluation, but I can confirm that DG RTD and DG CLIMA are working closely with the two executive agencies responsible of the implementation of the call, HaDEA and CINEA, to ensure a robust evaluation process and the selection of the strongest proposals. Top expert evaluators with both scientific and commercial expertise have been mobilised for this purpose.
The evaluation work is still ongoing. Nevertheless, the Commission expects to begin drawing lessons from this first round already and to inform the Programme Committee of the results as soon as possible, ideally before the end of 2026 or in early 2027.
Based on the recent 2026 CID call for proposal and the related results, do you expect that the 2027 one will be modified? If so, how? Can we expect more CID-related calls for proposal in future, or similar instruments?
There is already a minor amendment in the 2027 topic on decarbonisation of energy intensive industries. The Commission added an explicit reference to its contribution to the objectives of the Competitiveness Coordination Tool on biobased industries. These industries were in scope in 2026, but the intention is to encourage more proposals from these sectors.
Regarding any further changes, these would depend on the recommendations received from experts after the evaluation is completed. On that basis, the Commission may fine-tune the topic texts or provide additional clarification through Frequently Asked Questions on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal.
More broadly, it is important to underline the strategic relevance and innovative character of this call. It was conceived as a first step towards strengthening support for the innovation-to-investment journey of European industry, with an explicit objective of fostering synergies between Horizon Europe and deployment instruments such as the Innovation Fund.
Looking ahead, the Commission proposal for the future Horizon Europe 2028–2032, in close connection with the European Competitiveness Fund, is expected to support this journey by design.
In this context, projects such as H2IF are particularly relevant and the Commission will use its findings and follow the implementation of the CID call closely in order to draw lessons that help shape future programming and strengthen bridging actions between Horizon Europe and the European Competitiveness Fund.
