On July 20, the regular acceptance of applications for grant assistance of the "Climate Innovation Vouchers" contest for Ukrainian small and medium-sized businesses began. Ukrainian businesses will be able to receive up to 50,000 euros on the development or implementation of climate technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase the efficiency of energy consumption. 

The deadline for submitting projects is September 30, 2023. You can find out more about the conditions of the competition on the page For applicants competition website ( https://climate.biz/formembers/ ). You can apply for link( https://t.ly/GPHVC ). 

The winners will be able to use the Climate Innovation Vouchers to pay for services necessary to improve their innovations, their promotion 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: industrial design, certification, testing, patenting, development of IT components, marketing, etc. 

Entrepreneurs who develop or implement innovative climate technologies can participate in the competition. They must be registered legal entities (private companies) operating on the territory of Ukraine for at least 1 year and belonging 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.  

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. 

"Climate Innovation Vouchers" is one of the largest grant programs in Ukraine that support green innovations and stimulate the development of climate-friendly technologies. The program is implemented by the EBRD and co-financed by the European Union.

"Business development ideas from the Climate Innovation Vouchers project pave the way and contribute to 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 the Ukrainian economy, continues to provide financing during the war.
 

"In accordance with the EBRD strategy, the majority of investments should be directed to financing 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. – told Oleksandr Nikolayenko, operational leader of the FINTECC Program, leading specialist of the Department of Climate Strategy and Regional Implementation, EBRD.

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 - on the website https://climate.biz/ 

Please address your questions to project manager Olga Zubczyk at [email protected]. You can watch the recording of the presentation of the Start of a new wave of the competition at link ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SejPLQkWWTE ).

Last year 13 Ukrainian companies successfully received Climate Vouchers for a total of about 500,000 euros and are already implementing their own green solutions and implementing European standards, because Ukraine is steadily moving towards EU membership. 

 
Information about the competition
 

The Climate Innovation Vouchers program is a component of the EBRD-supported Climate Change Finance and Technology Transfer Center (FINTECC) European Union within the framework of the EU4CLIMATE initiative. The program is implemented by the NGO "Greencubator".
 

• In 2017, Ukraine became the first country where the EBRD launched Climate Innovation Vouchers. During this time, the EBRD and the EU provided more than 1 million euros to 50 local companies. 

• In Ukraine, the program 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" program 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 the basis for Ukrainian green innovation. 

• The program provided support to such currently well-known Ukrainian companies 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. Enzym is the largest producer of yeast in Ukraine, which is transforming into a global biotechnology company.
   
• This year, three winners of the program 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 beneficiaries of the program - Eco Factor and Carbominer were included in the SET100 global rating of energy startups by dena (German Energy Agency) this year.
   
• Since 2020, the beneficiaries of the program have attracted investments from such reputable investors as ABB (GO TO-U), SMRK VC (Carbominer and Prengi), Angel One Fund (GO TO-U).