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Waterborne Transport Innovation delivering on the European Green Deal


The Royal Belgian Shipowners’ Association is part of the Waterborne Technology Platform, which welcomes the applicability of the EU Innovation Fund to deploy highly innovative technologies that can bring significant emission reductions in the waterborne transport sector.

On 26 October, the European Commission launched the second call for large-scale projects under the Innovation Fund. The EU Innovation Fund is one of the world’s largest programmes for the demonstration of innovative low-carbon technologies, financed by revenues from the auction of emission allowances from the EU’s Emissions Trading System. With a budget of €1.5 billion for the second call, it will finance breakthrough technologies for renewable energy, energy-intensive industries, energy storage, and carbon capture, use and storage.

On 27 October 2021, the Waterborne Technology Platform organised, in cooperation with Directorate-Generals for Research and Innovation and Climate Action, a workshop on the EU’s vision to decarbonise shipping and the opportunities for waterborne transport in the framework of the EU Innovation Fund.

Wilfried Lemmens, Managing Director of the Royal Belgian Shipowners’ Association and Board member of the Waterborne Technology Platform says “the Waterborne Technology Platform welcomes the fact that the deployment of technologies and concepts facilitating the transition to zero-emission waterborne transport can be co-financed via the EU Innovation Fund. It is specifically relevant, since these innovative technologies have reached a technological maturity, but are often not mature yet from a financial perspective. Thereby, the Innovation Fund is key to deploy the technologies resulting from Research, Development and Innovation, more specifically in the framework of the Co-Programmed Partnership on Zero-Emission Waterborne Transport under Horizon Europe. Combining Research, Development and Innovation efforts with support for the deployment of innovative technologies, will offer Europe the possibility to be a frontrunner in the transition to zero-emission waterborne transport.

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