On Monday, 19 October 2026, the European Commission selected 77 European net-zero technology projects for financial support of 3.4 billion euros from the Innovation Fund. The announcement is a selection. The money has not been paid, and the contracts are not signed.

The projects sit in 23 countries of the European Economic Area. On the Commission's public list, TERRA-Q appears with Romania as its location, as a small-scale project in glass, ceramics and construction materials. FLOW4EVE appears under manufacturing, with Hungary as its location. Calea Europeană, citing the selection documents, writes that FLOW4EVE would be implemented in Hungary and Romania. The list does not say how work or money would be split between the countries.

The same article names Calamearic SRL as coordinator of TERRA-Q. The project aims at an industrial plant in Romania for lower-emission mineral tiles, using reused materials and an electrified process that drops kiln firing at 1,200-1,400 degrees. The project fiche speaks of an estimated cut of about 80 percent in greenhouse-gas emissions and of about 33,000 tonnes of CO2 avoided over ten years. Those are project estimates, not measured results.

FLOW4EVE is coordinated, according to the same documents, by Robert Bosch GmbH. The aim is industrial-scale production of a thermal system for electric vehicles, built around a heat pump. The project estimate speaks of winter range up by as much as 20 percent and of about three million tonnes of CO2 equivalent avoided in the first ten years, for the project as a whole. Those figures are not commercial results either.

The selected list does not state the sum for each of the two initiatives. Promoters have been invited to start grant-agreement preparation with the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA). This stage closes the budget, timetable, technical and financial results and legal duties. The outcome of that process is due in the first quarter of 2027.

The call, launched in December 2025, drew 358 applications seeking 17.5 billion euros, above the 2.9 billion euros available. Another 84 projects passed evaluation but will not receive money from this call. They, together with the 77 selected, receive the STEP quality seal, which is meant to ease access to other funding. 160 proposals remain eligible for project-development assistance, through advice from the European Investment Bank.

The list includes, for the first time, a small modular reactor project, NetZeroHeat, in France, for the district-heating network in Pierrelatte, and a direct air capture and storage project. The Commission estimates that the 77 projects could together avoid the equivalent of about 290 million tonnes of greenhouse gases in their first decade of operation. That is announced potential, not a cut already delivered.

The next round of Innovation Fund calls is being prepared for early December 2026 and includes one billion euros for clean-technology manufacturing.

Image: Axel Kirch, Charlemagne building of the European Commission, European Quarter in Brussels, 17 October 2017, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; archive, not the 19 October 2026 briefing.

Sources consulted: Romania, inclusa cu doua proiecte pentru materiale de constructii si mobilitate electrica - Calea Europeana; Commission invests 3.4 billion euros in net-zero technology projects - European Commission Representation in Portugal.