Header: Sean Brown via Unsplash
Beyond the dramatic healthcare crisis caused by the global pandemic, we are also facing another crisis: a shock to our economy tougher than any crisis since the 1930’s Great Depression, according to IMF. Recent data from Capital Economics show the impact of the coronavirus pandemic could knock up to 15% of eurozone GDP in the second quarter of the year compared to the first quarter.
EIT Climate-KIC launched an Extraordinary Post COVID-19 Regeneration Call 2020 to support more programmes and projects which directly respond to and support emergency response from the impacts of COVID-19 and propose innovative solutions to address these impacts. Teams interested in the call have until 22 May, 2020 to express their interest. A separate but aligned Call will support green companies affected by COVID-19 through the rest of 2020. With these Calls, EIT Climate-KIC will contribute to address the urgent needs for regeneration and for transitioning our economies towards reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050: A goal that is at the heart of the European Green Deal.
“The impacts of the pandemic on the economy, businesses and workers calls for a strong co-ordinated economic response. Now is our chance to correct course. EIT Climate-KIC is therefore supporting the call for a European Green Recovery, which asks for a reboot of the economy.” – Kirsten Dunlop, CEO of EIT Climate-KIC
The aim of the Extraordinary Post COVID-19 Regeneration Call 2020 is to test the models needed for COVID-19 response and regeneration in the green economy; create scaling and/or leverage mechanisms to support both the regeneration of economies and job creation aligned with net-zero-carbon emissions; and to strengthen resilience to future crises.
These calls are part of the EU’s collective efforts to tackle the COVID-19 crisis. The founds come from the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) which have decided to mobilise EUR 60 million of additional funding to innovators powering high-impact solutions that tackle this unprecedented social and economic challenge. The financing will allow the launch of new innovation projects to address the immediate crisis as part of the ‘Pandemic Response Projects’, and will support highly innovative start-ups, scale-ups and SMEs crucial to the economy’s fast recovery to benefit from additional funding under the ‘Venture Support Instrument’.
The EIT Climate KIC Extraordinary Post COVID-19 Regeneration Call 2020 will support innovation activities in the following priority areas:
- Circular economy across policy, finance, education, entrepreneurship and innovation tochange whole systems from linear to circular;
- Transformation of the built environment in cities requires innovation to explore theinteractions between energy, water, clean mobility and distributed energy technologies aswell as the appropriate supportive financing models and policy changes that also activelysupport communities and citizen engagement.
- Financial Systems to deploy public and private capital in support of climate resilient, safeand sustainable communities.
