The Competitiveness and Innovation (CIP) Eco-innovation Initiative is a grant scheme funded by the EU which aims to support commercially oriented eco-innovation projects of European enterprises. The Initiative was launched in 2008, as part of the EU’s Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP). It is managed by the Executive Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation (EACI) in cooperation with the Directorate-General for Environment of the European Commission.
The funding is offered for the commercialisation of new market-ready products, processes or systems that have positive environmental benefits; and focuses on innovative solutions that can be replicated by other companies across the EU. The funding thus contributes not only to protecting the environment but also to improving the overall competitiveness of European business. Applications for funding are invited each year under specified thematic priorities:
■ Materials and Process Recycling
■ Buildings
■ Food and Drink
■ Greening Business
■ Water efficiency, treatment and distribution (since 2011)
This report provides a summary of the main results from the projects funded in the first three years’ of the Initiative. In this time, 126 projects received total funding of €86.8 million from the EU, matching investment provided by the projects. These projects are typically transnational cooperation projects. Around 70% of the projects involve partners from more than one country; projects comprise on average 4 partners, with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) forming the large majority of the partners. Partners operate in the manufacturing sector (37%), the environmental services sector (34%) and scientific and technical activities (25%). 43% of the projects based on the main partner, are located in Spain and Italy, with the remaining projects mainly from UK, Netherlands, Austria, France and Germany.
The study confirms that the programme in the first 3 years offers good value for money based on the projected environmental, economic and employment benefits which far exceed the public resources spent on supporting the projects.