On July 20, the acceptance of applications for grant assistance of the "Climate Innovation Vouchers" competition for Ukrainian small and medium-sized businesses began. The deadline for submitting projects is September 30, 2023. Ukrainian businesses can receive up to 50,000 euros for the development or implementation of climate technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase the efficiency of energy consumption. It was announced during presentations the third wave of the competition.
"Climate Innovation Vouchers" is one of the largest grant programs in Ukraine that support "green" innovations and stimulate the development of climate-friendly technologies.
"Business development ideas from the project "Climate Innovation Vouchers pave the way and promote innovation and green entrepreneurship. Our common goal is to transform the economy of Europe, including Ukraine, making it stronger and more competitive," he emphasized during the event Gregory Tsouris, first secretary - Green Course, Innovations, Representation of the EU in Ukraine. "This program is one of the practical embodiments of the green recovery of Ukraine."
The EBRD, as a financial institution and the largest institutional investor in the real sector of Ukraine's economy, continues to provide financing even during the war.
"In accordance with the EBRD strategy, the majority of investments should be directed to finance green economy projects. We see that this is the right decision. Our clients, who have already invested in sustainable development projects, have shown greater resilience to security issues in their operations. For example, companies that implemented ecological farming practices did not depend on the supply of fertilizers, producers of electricity from biogas did not have supply interruptions. – said Oleksandr Nikolayenko, operational leader of the FINTECC Program, leading specialist of the Department of Climate Strategy and Regional Implementation, EBRD.
The start of the third wave of grant aid for "green" innovators became possible even in the difficult circumstances of the war with Russia.
"Our previous wave was supposed to end accepting applications on February 28, 2022. But then we continued accepting applications and were able to nominate 13 Ukrainian companies, which create innovations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and for the future green transformation of Ukraine," he said Roman Zinchenko, co-founder of the NGO "Greencubator", which implements the project.
The winners of the grant competition in 2023 will be able to use the Climate Innovation Vouchers to pay for the services necessary to improve the innovation, promote it to other markets, which will stimulate a certain "breakthrough" for the development of the company and the scaling of the technology. In particular, such services include: prototype design, certification, testing, patenting, development of IT components, marketing, etc.
About requirements for participants project coordinator Olga Zubczyk said. Entrepreneurs who develop or implement innovative climate technologies can participate in the competition. According to her, they must be registered legal entities (private companies) that have been operating on the territory of Ukraine for at least 1 year and belong to the small and medium business sector. Also, participants must be ready to co-finance the project at a level of at least 25% from the amount of the grant.
You can find out more about the conditions of the competition on the page For applicants contest website. You can apply via the link - https://t.ly/GPHVC
Projects are evaluated by an expert jury based on the following criteria: the level of innovation of the product or technology, the impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the ability to scale and use in other sectors, the market potential and the realism of project implementation, taking into account the experience and expertise of the team.
For potential grant competition participants every week online consultations will be held regarding the details of the project and the features of filling out the application. More information and registration for consultations are available on the website https://climate.biz/ . Also, please address your questions to the project manager Olga Zubczyk at the mailbox [email protected] . You can view the recording of the presentation of the Start of a new wave of the competition at the link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SejPLQkWWTE .
Last year 13 Ukrainian companies successfully received Climate Vouchers for a total amount of 500,000 euros and are already implementing their own "green" solutions and implementing European standards, because Ukraine is steadily moving towards EU membership.
Help about the project
The Climate Innovation Vouchers project is a component of the program European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Supported by the Climate Change Finance and Technology Transfer Center (FINTECC). European Union in Ukraine within the EU4CLIMATE initiative. The project is implemented by the NGO "Greencubator".
In 2017, Ukraine became the first country where the EBRD launched the Voucher scheme. During this time, the EBRD and the EU provided more than €1 million to about 50 local companies.
In Ukraine, the project has been implemented for the sixth year Greencubator is a non-profit organization that supports sustainable entrepreneurship in the field of climate innovation and the development of the green economy in Ukraine.
The result of the "Climate Innovation Vouchers" project is a number of success stories in many fields: from electric mobility to resource-efficient metallurgy. Vouchers have helped create some key technologies that are core to Ukrainian green innovation.
The project supported now well-known companies, such as Delfast, which produces electric bikes - record holders of the Guinness Book of Records, PRANA - a manufacturer of energy-saving recuperators; TOKA, GO TO-U, Eco Factor – operators of electric mobility solutions; xBeam3D – developer of 3D printing technology with titanium wire; HEMPIRE – a developer of ecological building material based on technical hemp and others.
This year, three project winners represented Ukraine at the StartUp Energy Transition Tech Festival – Frendt LLC (solutions for precision agriculture), Efarm.pro (solutions for agro-navigation), S.Lab – Sustainable Laboratory (development of biodegradable packaging materials). Two Ukrainian companies entered the SET100 this year - Eco Factor and Carbominer, which are also beneficiaries of the project.
