‘SupergridEurope’ calls on the European Commission to make its €40 bn Innovation Fund accessible to grid technology innovation.
Brussels, 28 June 2025 – SupergridEurope has responded to the European Commission’s evaluation of the EU Innovation Fund (EUIF) – the €40 bn funding programme for innovative technologies.The fund is intended to support Europe’s transition to climate neutrality while promoting competitiveness.
“Grid limitations are already staring to show, as billions of Euro are lost due to bottlenecks and congestion. Europe has a strong grid but it is not fit for the purposes of decarbonisation and energy independence. Since its establishment in 2018, the EU Innovation Fund has not provided funding for a single demonstration or manufacturing project involving those innovative grid technologies needed to ensure affordable low carbon energy is available to all Europeans,” said Christian Kjaer, Executive director of SupergridEurope.
In its evaluation of the Innovation Fund, SupergridEurope highlights the continued challenges for innovative grid technologies (IGT), for which no funding has ever been allocated to manufacturing or demonstration projects under the EUIF:
“The evaluation criteria in their current form – especially on GHG avoidance – are not compatible with demonstration or manufacturing projects for innovative grid technology such as the development of next generation of Innovative Grid Technologies. This continues to put grid innovation and other net-zero enabling technologies at a disadvantage to carbon emitting technologies with vast emission reduction potentials, such as CCS and hydrogen, SupergridEurope writes in its submission.
It recommends the Commission to rectify this shortcoming, for example by introducing sector specific calls for innovative electricity transmission technologies and adjusted the evaluation criteria that better reflects the nature of enabling technologies such as innovative grid technology.
In its 19 June 2025 Resolution an Electricity Gridsi, the European Parliament called on the European Commission to ensure that a proportionate amount of funding is made available for grid investments under the EUIF: It regrets “that the evaluation criteria applied to the assessment of projects submitted in response to the EU Innovation Fund’s calls for proposals prevent funding for the demonstration and manufacturing of grid technologies”.
Last year the European Commission Vice President Sefcovic’s stocktaking on the Commission’s Clean Transition Dialoguesii recognised the challenges for grid technology to access funding under the EUIF, considering “access to EU funds to be complex and lengthy due to different eligibility criteria, application procedures, and red tape”.
SupergridEurope’s response to the European Commission’s evaluation of the EU Innovation Fund [Link]
SupergridEurope’s response to the European Commission’s questionnaire on the EU Innovation Fund [Link]
About SupergridEurope
SupergridEurope was founded in April 2025 by Lesley O’Connor, a global renewable energy investor and practitioner with over a decade of experience advancing decarbonisation projects worldwide. She is a Non-Executive Director of Aker Mainstream Renewables and has served on the board of Mainstream Renewable Power since 2015. SupergridEurope is led by Executive Director Christian Kjaer, Chief Public Affairs Officer at SuperNode, and former CEO of WindEurope. SupergridEurope has a permanent presence in Brussels, represented by Senior Advisor Suzana Carp.
For further information, please contact:
Aoife Cronin, Communications Officer - aoifecronin@supergrideurope.eu | +353 85 283 7150