Project Development Funding

Project development funding streams help to advance the capacity of local authorities, community groups, private sector organisations and other stakeholders to advance climate projects. The activities matched to this funding include policy support projects, feasibility studies, pilot projects and other climate technologies and initiatives. A variety of the funding streams also provide for cross- border collaboration, which brings the added value of sharing experiences of existing and emerging best practice, both across Ireland and at European level.

National Funding for Project Development

Enterprise Ireland Green Transition Fund

The Green Transition Fund supports companies across each of the different aspects of their decarbonisation journey – from initial planning and capability building to investment, research and innovation. It is designed to support companies, whether starting out or already on the journey, to take action now and get ready for the low carbon, more resource efficient economy of the future.

IDA Ireland GO Green

Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland Project Assistance Scheme

The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland Project Assistance Scheme is a grant for businesses and public sector bodies with annual energy bills over €250,000.

The grant can assist in developing projects to reduce energy consumption and costs and to build good procurement practices. It applies for energy saving projects associated with buildings, industry, commercial operations, transport and utility services. Utilisation of this grant also results in enhanced reputation for the organisation, improved competitiveness, improved engagement with employees on energy efficiency and an ability to divert incurred savings to other activities.

SEAI Energy Efficiency Obligation Scheme

The SEAI Energy Efficiency Obligation Scheme allows energy suppliers or distributors who sell large amounts of energy e.g. electricity, gas and solid fuel to offer supports to make homes or businesses more energy efficient.

SEAI Support Scheme for Rewnable Heat

The SEAI's scheme offers financial support to businesses that switch to renewable heat. These supports include:
- Operational support for a biomass and biogas heating system
- An installation grant for a commercial heat pump.
SSRH is open to commercial, industrial, agricultural, district heating, public sector and other non-domestic heat users.

Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme

The Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme (SICAP) 2024-2028 provides funding to tackle poverty and social exclusion at a local level through local engagement and partnerships between disadvantaged individuals, community organisations and public sector agencies.
The IDA Ireland GO Green Business Offers supports IDA clients to adopt green business principles that increases environmental efficiencies and competitiveness along with an increased awareness of environmental issues and sustainability.

LEADER

The LEADER programme accepts applications based on projects which improve: rural tourism, enterprise development, broadband, basic services targeted at hard-to-reach communities, rural youth, protection and sustainable use of water resources, local biodiversity and renewable energy. The LEADER programme is administered at a local level by 29 local action groups, which contain local representatives from the community, public and private sector. Each group is responsible for selecting and awarding LEADER funding to projects within their geographical area. More information on LEADER can be found at this page: LEADER Rural Development

Fisheries Local Action Groups (FLAGs)

The FLAG scheme is a five year fisheries local development programme which has been allocated €12 million funding under the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) Operational Programme. There are seven Fisheries Local Action Groups (FLAGs) recently selected as part of a competitive process under the community led local development element of the €240 million EMFF Operational Programme. The funding is 50% financed by the EU.The seven FLAG areas are North East (Louth, Meath, Dublin), South East (Wicklow, Wexford, Waterford), South (Cork), South West (Kerry), West (Galway, Clare), North West (Mayo, Sligo), North (Donegal).

This initiative is focused on community-led development to enhance the economic opportunities and social sustainability of Fisheries and Aquaculture dependent areas. Each FLAG has, through a process of public consultation developed a Local development Strategy, aimed at supporting job creation, adding value, promoting innovation as well as enhancing environmental assets and promoting each area’s maritime cultural heritage.

European Funding for Project Development

Copernicus Masters

The Copernicus Masters is a global innovation competition which encoruages participants to showcase the benfits of the Copernicus services across various sectors including agriculture, green energies and climate change among others. The competition fosters ideas on using Earth Observation Data to tackle global challenges, and supports winners in further developing their solutions.

ELENA

ELENA - European Energy Assistance provides grants for technical assistance for the implementation of energy efficiency, distributed renewable energy and urban transport programmes. The grant can be used for finance costs related to feasibility and market studies, programme structuring, business plans, energy audits and financial structuring, contractual arrangements and project implementation units as well as preparation of tendering procedures.

EU Innovation Fund

EU Innovation Fund focuses on highly innovative technologies and big flagship projects with European value added that could bring on significant emission reductions. The fund supports cross-cutting projects on innovative low-carbon solutions that lead to emission reductions in multiple sectors. The activities typically supported include the development of products, which substitute carbon intensive ones, carbon capture, and utilisation, the construction and operation of carbon capture and storage, renewable energy generation and energy storage.

European City Facility Fund

European City Facility Fund allows municipalities across Europe to access a lump sum and related services to develop their investment concepts thereby unlocking the potential within local authorities. The objective is to facilitate the mobilisation of (local) investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy.

Technical Support Instrument (TSI) 2025

The Technical Support Instrument (TSI) 2025 funding round was circulated recently – launched by DG Reform in the EU Commission, managed by DPENDNPR as the National Coordinating Authority. The TSI Gov.ie page has been updated with all the information, including details of key deadlines for applications. The DG Reform repository is live - the aim of the repository is to gather individual ideas and proposals from Member States. It is an informal process with the objective of identifying
synergies for multi-country applications.

European Urban Initiative

The EU Urban Initiative supports EU cities of all sizes in evidence-based strategy and policy making on sustainable urban development. EUI helps cities build their capacity and share knowledge to develop transferable and scalable innovation solutions to urban challenges of EU relevance.

Driving Urban Transitions

Driving Urban Transitions - DUT Partnership provides support to tackle urban challenges. Through research, innovation and capacity building, it enables local authorities and municipalities, service and infrastructure providers, and citizens to translate global strategies into local action. It develops the skills and tools to make urban change happen and boost urban transformations towards a sustainable future with enhanced quality of life in cities.