Research & Innovation for the Clean Industrial Deal

The EU is committed to reaching climate neutrality by 2050, with milestones of 55% fewer emissions by 2030 and 90% by 2040. To get there, Europe must speed up the roll-out of clean energy, decarbonise energy-intensive industries like steel, cement and chemicals, modernise infrastructure and strengthen circular economy solutions.

That’s what the Clean Industrial Deal is about – combining decarbonisation with competitiveness. It creates incentives for clean tech and heavy industries to lead the way in Europe’s industrial transformation.

A new Horizon Europe call under the 2026–2027 Work Programme will provide around 600 million euros for large-scale demonstration projects that are both technologically excellent and ready for market. The call for research and innovation projects follows a bottom-up, industry-driven approach and covers two open topics:

• Clean Tech for Climate

• Decarbonisation of Energy-Intensive Industries

50 million euros from the whole Budget will be dedicated to Calls in the Research Fund for Coal and Steel.

This horizontal call is part of Horizon Europe Pillar II (“Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness”) and links to Cluster 4 and Cluster 5 activities, including the Clean Hydrogen Joint Undertaking.

Expected impacts include faster deployment of clean technologies across industrial sectors (e.g. energy intensive industries, manufacturing, energy and transport), stronger EU competitiveness, more resilience and strategic autonomy, and the mobilisation of public and private investment.

Agenda:

• 2:00 p.m. | Welcome – Margit Noll (FFG), Petra Schefzig (IV)

• 2:10 p.m. | The Clean Industrial Deal Call in Horizon Europe – Alessandra Colli & Philip Hawkins (European Commission)

• 2:40 p.m. | Q & A

• 2:55 p.m. | Services of FFG – Mihaela Albu (FFG)

• 3:00 p.m. | End

In cooperation with the Federation of Austrian Industries (IV)