Horizon Europe: Horizontal Activities – R&I in Support of the Clean Industrial Deal

The ‘R&I in Support of the Clean Industrial Deal’ call is a horizontal call that aims to accelerate the market deployment of cutting-edge clean technologies and decarbonised industry solutions, with a focus on both technological excellence and market readiness. The ambition is to deliver the Clean Industrial Deal, which aims to direct investment towards infrastructure and industry to support the EU’s industrial decarbonisation, resilience, growth, and competitiveness.

The main aim of the call is to support the development of a new generation of demonstrators in clean tech and decarbonised industry that combine technological excellence with market readiness with a view to accelerating their market deployment.

The call will follow a bottom-up and industry-led approach to maximise the impact on competitiveness and decarbonisation across EU industrial sectors (eg decarbonised industries, energy and transport), allowing for cross-sectorial system integration and a market-driven R&I response to industry needs.

The call reinforces the activities of the largest component of the Horizon Europe programme, Pillar II (‘Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness’), which supports projects related to societal challenges striving to reinforce technological and industrial capacities. It will be complemented by a number of specific sectorial actions within Cluster 4 (‘Digital, Space, and Industry’) and Cluster 5 (‘Climate, Energy, and Mobility’), including the Clean Hydrogen Joint Undertaking as part of an overall coordinated portfolio management approach.

The expected output of the call will be projects that are ‘Fit for deployment’ in terms of technological feasibility, but also in terms of having a realistic business plan and a sound market-readiness strategy in the dissemination and exploitation plan. This will support the EU innovation value chain to supply the deployment pipeline with suitable R&I solutions ready for deployment in the market through private/public investment (including relevant EU deployment programmes, such as the Innovation Fund).

Proposals are expected to set out a credible pathway to contribute to the Clean Industrial Deal’s core objectives, and more specifically to several of the following expected impacts:

• Accelerating roll-out and deployment – Accelerate the roll-out and deployment of European decarbonised and clean tech solutions across EU industrial sectors (eg decarbonised industries, energy and transport).
• Promoting competitiveness – Support the European competitiveness of next generation of clean tech and decarbonised industry in the EU.
• Resilience and Strategic Autonomy – Support the expansion of the manufacturing capacity in Europe for industry decarbonisation and clean tech solutions and strengthen sustainable and resilient value chains in Europe to reduce dependencies.
• Leveraging Investments – Facilitate the mobilisation and alignment of public and private financing and investment for innovative clean energy and industry decarbonisation technologies, assets, grids, and processes in the EU.
• Lowering Energy Prices – Reduce the energy price gap in Europe via the deployment of competitive clean tech and industrial decarbonisation solutions.

A business plan and a credible initial market-readiness strategy are essential components in the ultimate success of an industry-based project, as well as its prospects to attract further investments for deployment. Proposers are requested to present a carefully considered business plan and market-readiness strategy, backed by the management of the companies involved. The business plan is expected to demonstrate the expected outcomes of the proposal in terms of enhanced competitiveness and market opportunities for the participants and deployment in the EU, in the short to medium term. The market-readiness strategy is expected to identify obstacles, requirements and necessary actions for becoming ready for market deployment.