Call: Geological storage pilots

• Reducing energy consumption and carbon footprint
• Low-cost, low-carbon electricity supply
• Alternative fuels and mobile energy sources
• A single, smart European electricity grid
• New knowledge and technologies
• Robust decision making and public engagement
• Market uptake of energy and ICT innovation.

The EU is committed to an overall reduction of greenhouse gas emissions of at least 80% by 2050. Nonetheless, fossil fuels will continue to be used in Europe's power generation as well as in other industrial processes for decades to come. Therefore, the 2050 target can only be achieved if the emissions from fossil fuel combustion in the power generation sector and energy intensive industries are eliminated from the system. This will require the application of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). A key challenge in the short-term for driving CCS to deployment is the development of geological storage.

Projects should enable, under "real life" conditions, the development and demonstration of best practices for the entire storage cycle, from site characterisation to operation, including key components of CO2 transport infrastructure, monitoring and mitigation/remediation of leakage, and including education and training.

At least three legal entities. Each of the three must be established in a different EU Member State or Horizon 2020 associated country. All three legal entities must be independent of each other. 

International cooperation is encouraged, in particular activities between EU project(s) under this topic and non-EU projects (e.g. from Australia and/or North-America).

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the range of 9 to 16 million €  would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

EU funding rate: 100%

Electronic application here. 

Link to the National Contact Point Finder.