Innovation Fund rejection opens the way to next IF success

One third of all successful Innovation Fund applications are resubmissions

The 2025 Annual knowledge sharing report of the Innovation Fund published by the European Commission states, among other things, that no less than 30% of successful IF projects were resubmitted. These are applications that were rejected in an earlier round, then improved and resubmitted, and ultimately selected. The important lesson to be learned from this is that, after the initial disappointment of a rejection, the same project can still score in the next round based on a thorough analysis of the reasons for rejection.

The Evaluation Summary Report (ESR) offers concrete starting points

A rejected application offers the opportunity to improve an IF project based on the comments in the Evaluation Summary Report (ESR). For example, did the project score low on the ‘Degree of innovation’ criterion? Providing a more detailed and clearer description and substantiation of the innovation with additional data may lead to a higher score. It may even offer the opportunity to expand the project with additional innovative aspects.

A poor score on the ‘Maturity’ criterion can also be addressed. An extra year of project development offers many opportunities to set up the project better. Partly supported by the extra time that has been created, you can continue with the technical planning, prepare a detailed market study, or recruit additional customers and investors.

More than 1 billion euros in subsidies

In recent years, PNO Innovation has already guided many great projects to Innovation Fund success. In this latest round, 13 of the 61 successful projects were guided by PNO experts. Together, these projects account for more than 1 billion euros in subsidies, slightly more than a third of the Innovation Fund’s 2.9 billion euros subsidy budget!

Take advantage of our expertise and participate in our free IF-25 webinar

Take advantage of our expertise to make your project (the next one?) a success. To get started, attend our free webinar on December 11, 2025, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., where the IF25 call will be explained in detail. Are you active in the renewable energy or energy-intensive industry and want to make the most of the Innovation Fund for new technologies, components, installations, and CCU/S solutions? Then register now for this webinar, which is co-organized by the EU projects DIAMONDS4IF and LEADS.

Contact

Do you have questions about the Innovation Fund and would you like to contact one of our experts? Call us at +31(0)88 838 13 81 or send us a message using the contact form below.