EAIC launches the second update of the NextGenerationEU Guide

Today the EAIC releases the second update of its flagship report: “NextGenerationEU Guide, for the industry to better understand and seize its opportunities”. The first edition was released back in July 2021 when the first National Recovery Plans were being adopted by the European Commission. 

• The new edition includes projects already starting to be implemented across Europe to recover from the COVID-19 pandemia.
• Report synthetises the National Recovery Plans in 26 EU member states to spend €750 bn foreseen from NextGenerationEU, the EU’s recovery plan announced in 2021.
• This new update includes summarised information on opened and planned calls in each country to implement the recovery plans.
•  Member states had to dedicate at least 37% of the expenditures to measures contributing to climate objectives and at least 20% to digital objectives.
• International collaboration in strategic Value Chains such as Hydrogen, Battery, or Semiconductors to reduce dependency of the EU on foreign technologies is favoured, the report summarises where EU countries are focusing their efforts into. 

Novelties of the second update
The guide  includes a synthesis of the content of each National Recovery Plan, providing details on priorities for reforms and investments to help the recovery. Altogether, the 27 plans represent a total of €723 bn in grants or loans foreseen to be spent or lent over four years. Each country had indicated in their plan the share that will go to Green or Digital recovery, on average 37% and 20% will go respectively to these priorities. 
The newly updated report includes fresh information on programmes and national calls that are programmed or are ongoing, “This report intends to give transparency on the opportunities that NGEU is offering to SMEs and Industries throughout Europe, showing how effective the EU recovery plan is” said Alex Alvarez, EAIC Board member and coordinator of the report. 

IPCEI and REPowerEU
The guide also makes focus on the international cooperation through the Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEI) mechanism that allows member States to provide additional support in view of helping strategic European Value Chains. This mechanism was already used in the Semiconductor or foreseen in Batteries and Hydrogen before the pandemia but the COVID crisis has put stress on Europe’s dependency on foreign technology. This mechanism is welcome as it helps to finance with state aid further collaboration between several countries in research and innovation. 5 areas are covered by IPCEI: Microelectronics, Batteries, Decarbonisation & Hydrogen, Health, and Cloud Services.

The new update includes examples of projects that are already being kick-started exactly one year after the launch of the plan. 
We can highlight a few examples of projects already being funded: 

• In Bulgaria, a project to digitalise the education sector is going to finance over 2240 establishment in the area of STEM: science, technology, engineering en mathematics, in total more than €246 M is foreseen for this project
• In the Czech Republic, a digital transformation project will help a number of several public administrations in the country to be better equiped to face cyber attacks prepared. The project has a total size of €74M. 
• In Estonia, some local municipalities are being supported with a €5M budget to construct 24 km of bike- and walkways infrastructures to reconnect existing cycling and pedestrian networks
• In Greece a Smart Prognosis Model for Ships supported by digital integrated sensors is being developed by the company Sigma Electronics with universities and research centers, the total budget is €800K
• In Italy, 5 National Centers dedicated to frontier research in the technological areas in line with the priorities of the European research agenda and the National Plan of Research 2021-2027 are being created by Federico II University. The budget will be between €200M and €400M. These centres aim to improve sustainable productivity and promote resilience to climate change; reduce waste and environmental impact; develop circular economy strategies, promote the development of safety, traceability, and typicality in the agri-food supply chains.
• In Portugal, 5 different municipalities: Chaves, Melgaço, Rio Maior, Campo Maior, Beja are creating demonstration spaces, in line with the new climate and digital agendas, testing integrated solutions in the area of  Renewable energy; Self consumption; Energy storage; Sustainable mobility; 5G and fire prevention. Total Budget: €65M. 
• In Finland 12 projects built around leading companies aim to solve future challenges, increase RDI investments, create jobs and RDI ecosystems with potential of several billions of additional investments. The projects receive funding from RRF and national sources with grants up to €20M for the leading companies with additional €50M available for ecosystem partners.

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Click here to download the guide

Click here to download the Press Release.