Research & Innovation for the Clean Industrial Deal

The EU aims for climate neutrality by 2050, with 55 % less emissions by 2030 and 90 % by 2040. To achieve this, Europe must accelerate clean energy deployment, decarbonise energy-intensive industries (steel, cement, chemicals), modernise infrastructure and strengthen circular economy solutions.

This is the focus of the Clean Industrial Deal – linking decarbonisation with competitiveness and creating incentives for clean tech and heavy industries to drive Europe’s industrial transformation.

A new Horizon Europe call in the 2026–2027 Work Programme will provide around 600 million euros for large-scale, market-ready demonstration projects. It follows a bottom-up, industry-driven approach and covers two open topics:

• Clean Tech for Climate

• Decarbonisation of Energy-Intensive Industries

50 million euros of the overall budget are reserved for the Research Fund for Coal and Steel.

💡 Review the pre-published draft Work Programme 2026/27.

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

Expected impacts: faster uptake of clean technologies in sectors such as manufacturing, energy-intensive industries, energy and transport; strengthened EU competitiveness, resilience, strategic autonomy and increased 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).