In this first of two episodes on Innovation Fund proposal writing, I’m joined by Irene Larroy from EY and Marco Molica Colella from Hydrogen Europe. We focus on the traditional Innovation Fund grants and Net-Zero Technologies calls rather than the auction mechanism. And the first lesson comes before the writing starts: because this programme is highly competitive and resource-intensive, applicants need to determine whether their project genuinely fits the Innovation Fund before investing heavily in the proposal. Irene explains how she starts by testing projects against the five evaluation criteria: degree of innovation, GHG emission avoidance, maturity, replicability and cost efficiency.
We then zoom in on the degree of innovation. Marco explains why innovation cannot be assessed in isolation: it depends on the sector, competing technologies and what the Innovation Fund has already supported. Irene shows why applicants should study the Innovation Fund dashboard and compare themselves carefully with previous funded projects—including previous projects from their own corporate group. We also discuss the importance of the innovation annex in the call documentation and why a successful proposal process may require applicants to redesign parts of the project itself in order to build a stronger case.
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