The Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEI), are strategic European project initiatives focussing on large-scale European goals and challenges. An IPCEI brings together national projects into one large European project that makes major impact and strengthens the competitiveness of the EU. Once the European Commission approves all projects within the IPCEI, these projects can receive more support than is possible under normal state aid rules. A project can have up to 100% of the the funding gap funded, which is a lot more than, for instance, in normal grant programmes. This makes an IPCEI very interesting for large-scale impactful innovation projects. IPCEIs have been launched for themes such as hydrogen, batteries, digitalisation, health and cloud infrastructure.

Several IPCEI interest surveys

Within IPCEI, the focus is on different objectives. The Dutch government has developed several interest surveys to find out which project initiatives Dutch companies are interested in. The interest surveys currently formulated are:

• IPCEI Hydrogen
• IPCEI Battery cells
• IPCEI Microelectronics
• IPCEI Cloud infrastructure and services
• IPCEI Health
• IPCEI Health Wave 2

Interest poll 1: IPCEI Hydrogen

This interest poll focuses on generating, using, storing, and transporting climate-neutral hydrogen. It also deals with electrolyser production.

Interest poll 2: IPCEI Battery Cells

This project initiative revolves around battery technologies. Their production, recycling of these and research on battery cells and modules.

Interest poll 3: IPCEI Microelectronics

The third interest poll is about the semiconductor industry in terms of equipment, manufacturing, assembly, and design.

Interest poll 4: IPCEI Cloud infrastructure and services

In the fourth interest poll, they focus on cloud infrastructure, cloud services or software.

Interest poll 5: IPCEI Health

This interest poll is about modernising and making more sustainable manufacturing technologies and processes for medicines. It is also about antimicrobial resistance or cell and gene therapy.

Interest poll 6: IPCEI Health wave 2

This project initiative revolves around entrepreneurs who want to invest in sustainable medical device designs and fabrications.

To this may be added a seventh interest poll, IPCEI Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). Several companies have come together to highlight the importance of this seventh interest poll. This project initiative focuses on infrastructure to capture, remove, use, transport, and store carbon dioxide.

IPCEI budgets

Currently, the Netherlands is participating in several IPCEI project initiatives. A total of  €1,947.5 million has been earmarked for the Netherlands. The budgets are distributed as follows:

• IPCEI Micro Electronics: € 218.5 million
• IPCEI Cloud Infrastructure and Services: € 66.5 million
• IPCEI Health Wave 1: € 44 million
• IPCEI Hydrogen: wave 1 € 35 million, wave 2 € 783.5 million, wave 3 € 600 million and wave 4 expected € 200 million

Prerequisites for project initiatives

National project proposals that can participate in the European IPCEI project are selected by the Netherlands. This is done based on several criteria and conditions. These are derived from the IPCEI support framework. The components on which project proposals are assessed are:

• Completeness test
• Access portal criteria
• National ranking

Interested in IPCEI project initiatives?

From the IPCEI project initiatives, support is provided in various sectors of sustainability, digitalisation and reducing production dependency on other continents. Are you interested in one of these project initiatives or would you like to find out which opportunities you qualify for? Our specialists have extensive knowledge and experience in the field of subsidies and will be happy to help you. Feel free to contact us via info@hezelburcht.com or 088 495 20 00.