The National Center for Research and Development has started to accept applications for co-financing innovations allowing for a wider use of renewable energy in transport. In the “Fast Track – RES in transport” competition, PLN 200 million is to be distributed.
Enterprises, consortia of enterprises or consortia of enterprises and scientific units can apply for support reaching even over EUR 20 million for the implementation of a research and development project.
The minimum value of a project implemented by one company from the SME sector is PLN 1 million. In other cases it is twice the amount. Online applications for funding will be assessed on the basis of criteria simplified this year by the National Center for Research and Development. One of the key is “The essence of the project”. This criterion is to verify the legitimacy of project implementation and expected results.
As NCBR assures, in the case of public transport, creating and implementing new technologies that make it more ecological and accessible is just as important as providing the right infrastructure and vehicles. Innovative solutions also benefit manufacturers of zero-emission vehicles, who are becoming more competitive, as well as public transport operators reducing service costs, for example, due to lower fuel costs or lower energy consumption of vehicles.
In each research topic, the National Center for Research and Development identified several issues that should be the subject of the project. Under the “gaseous fuels” theme, inter alia, the development of prototype vehicle structures for public transport, powered by biogas, biomethane or biohydrogen, and the implementation of infrastructure also ensuring universal access for individual customers, and in “electromobility”, for example, the development of systems for the production and refueling of hydrogen from electrolysis . The submitted project should also be included in one of the so-called National Smart Specializations.