Green Innovation Challenge Fund pilot launched in Ballymena

The Challenge Fund, delivered by the Centre for Advanced Sustainable Energy (CASE) hosted by Queen’s University Belfast, an industry led sustainable energy research centre, received £4.5 million funding from the Department for the Economy, under the Economic Recovery Action Plan ‘Building a Green Economy’.
Speaking at the launch in Ballymena, the Minister said: “The Green Innovation Challenge Fund will help support development of the disruptive technologies and innovative projects we will need to underpin successful delivery and help meet the goals of the Economic Recovery Action Plan, Energy Strategy and 10x Economic Strategy.
“The provision of £4.5 million funding to the Centre for Advanced Sustainable Energy demonstrates that my Department is stepping up to directly support research and innovation that not only seeks to solve these dilemmas, but does so by bringing together Northern Ireland’s strong manufacturing and service sectors with its world-renowned academic and research institutions,” he said.
The Green Innovation Challenge Fund aims to stimulate a broad range of projects covering areas such as energy system design, the decarbonisation of marine and aviation, the built environment and hard to treat industrial sectors.

Trevor Haslett CBE, chair of the CASE board commented: “CASE is delighted to be working in partnership with the Department for the Economy in the delivery of the Green Innovation Challenge Fund. 
“Our ambition is to maximise the impact of the funds by enabling research in clean technologies that will realise the goals of the Northern Ireland Energy Strategy through increasing our indigenous energy generation, growing the local economy and ensuring vibrant and sustainable communities across Northern Ireland.
“We would particularly welcome Pathfinder project applications which tackle technical, environmental, policy and social acceptance barriers to the adoption of new clean technologies. 
“These projects should aim to realise significant impacts across the wider supply chain, and involve researchers from both technical and social science subject areas,” said Mr Haslett.
The Challenge Fund brings together the most innovative firms with academic experts to solve the challenges of moving towards a net zero energy system, while delivering growth and jobs for Northern Ireland. 
Lessons learnt from this round will be used to develop a larger fund, one of the actions from the recent published 2022 Action Plan to deliver the new Northern Ireland Energy Strategy.