EU funding, sorted by activity.
Which EU programme fits your CRCF activity, and which one does not. We are not advisers, we take no fee and we do not broker applications. This page exists because the funding is published separately from the framework, so nobody tells a peatland project that the Innovation Fund is not its route.
Start here: two separate worlds
EU money for carbon removal does not come from one pot. One set of programmes funds plant, equipment and the companies building them. The other funds land management. Different rules, different applicants, different orders of magnitude. Most wasted effort comes from applying to the wrong one.
Technology and plant
DACCS, BioCCS, biochar, storage in products. Innovation Fund and EIC Accelerator.
Money reaches the installation or the company. Track record exists.
Land management
Soil carbon, peatland rewetting, afforestation, forest management. LIFE and the CAP Strategic Plans.
Money reaches consortia and farmers. No EU programme is aimed at the unit developer.
| Your activity | In the directory | Where to look | What it actually funds |
|---|---|---|---|
| DACCS, BioCCS | 9 developers | Innovation Fund, EIC Accelerator | Capital cost of a facility, or the company building the technology |
| Biochar | 8 developers | Innovation Fund SME call, EIC Accelerator | Pyrolysis plant, or the company scaling it |
| Storage in products, mineralisation | 3 developers | EIC Accelerator, Innovation Fund | The process technology and its first industrial scale-up |
| Soil carbon, peatland rewetting | 12 developers | LIFE, CAP Strategic Plans | Project consortia and payments to land managers, not the unit developer |
| Afforestation, forest management | 5 developers | LIFE, CAP Strategic Plans, national schemes | As above, and largely decided nationally |
The four programmes
Innovation Fund
Five calls open December 2026The largest pot and the only one with a track record in permanent removals. It funds the capital cost of building something, which is why it reaches installations rather than land.
Carbon removal is not a separate call, it is a scoring advantage. In the 2025 net-zero technologies call, the potential to deliver net carbon removals was worth a bonus point in the evaluation, and a project coordinated and implemented by an SME was worth a second one. The pilots topic names net carbon removal technology as exactly what it is looking for. So a removal project is not squeezing into a scheme built for something else.
The hard filter is size. Nothing below €2.5 million capital expenditure was eligible under any topic. Above that the call splits by size, and the money is not spread evenly.
| Topic, 2025 call | Capital expenditure | Budget |
|---|---|---|
| General, large scale | above €100 million | €1.2 billion |
| General, medium scale | €20 to 100 million | €300 million |
| General, small scale | €2.5 to 20 million | €100 million |
| Clean tech manufacturing | above €2.5 million | €1 billion |
| Pilots | above €2.5 million | €300 million |
- Minimum
- €2.5 million CAPEX
- Removal bonus
- 1 point
- SME bonus
- 1 point
- Proven case
- €180 million
EIC Accelerator
CDR call announced, not publishedThis funds companies, not projects, and that distinction decides whether it is worth your time. An applicant is a single start-up or SME, or a small mid-cap up to 499 employees for the investment part only. A project developer without a company behind the technology is not the addressee.
The readiness level matters as much as the money. Levels 6 to 8 mean demonstration: not research, and not a product already selling at scale.
- Grant
- up to €2.5 million
- Equity
- €1 to 10 million
- Readiness
- TRL 6 to 8
- Duration
- 24 months
At its Buyers Club webinar on 10 September 2026, DG CLIMA announced a first EIC call dedicated to carbon removal, covering existing CRCF methodologies and beyond, with €50 million in total for start-ups and SMEs. It was not on the EIC site when we checked: the five EIC Accelerator Challenges for 2026 are advanced materials, fusion, biotech for agricultural soils, critical raw materials and deep tech for climate adaptation. Carbon removal is not among them. Treat this call as expected, not as open.
LIFE
Consortia, not developersLIFE has put more than €150 million into more than 30 projects supporting carbon farming, carbon sequestration and carbon credits since 2021, including peatland restoration and forest management. The beneficiary is a project consortium, typically with research and public partners, not a company selling units.
It funds demonstration and replication. That suits a project that wants to prove a method, not one that wants to finance issuance.
- Since 2021
- €150 million +
- Projects
- 30 +
- Fits
- Peatland, forestry, soil
CAP Strategic Plans
National, 28 sets of rulesEco-schemes and rural development measures pay land managers. There are 28 approved plans for 2023 to 2027, so the rules are national rather than European, and they change with the next CAP period from 2028. The money reaches the farmer, not the developer.
For a carbon farming developer this is less a funding route than a fact about your farmers' existing income, and it leads straight to the question below.
The uncomfortable part, and it is unresolved. Where a farmer already receives an eco-scheme payment for a practice, and a carbon farming project sells units for the same practice, the question of additionality and double funding arises. The CRCF requires additionality. The CAP pays for practices. How the two sit together is not settled in a way we can point to, and any developer working on mineral soils or peatland should expect the question in due diligence rather than be surprised by it.
What to do next
If you build plant or technology
- Decide which instrument you are. An installation applies to the Innovation Fund, a company to the EIC. Both at once is rarely the right answer.
- Watch December. The Innovation Fund calls open then and the EIC carbon removal call is expected in the same quarter. Both sit on our events page.
- Check your readiness level honestly before writing anything for the EIC. Below 6 or above 8 is a rejection you can predict.
If you work on land
- Stop looking at the Innovation Fund. It is not for you, and the cost of an application is real.
- Your nearer milestone is regulatory, not financial. The carbon farming methodologies were adopted on 10 July 2026 and are not yet in force, and nothing can be certified until they are. See CRCF explained.
- Prepare an answer on eco-scheme overlap before a buyer asks for one.
Limits and sources
- No national programmes. There are 27 sets of them and we cannot keep them current honestly.
- No advice on applications, and no fee from anyone. See About.
- No private finance. Offtake agreements are a separate route, and the EU Buyers' Club is where public funding and private demand are meant to meet.