Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF – Federal Ministry for Education and Research) has launched the new funding initiative ‘Disruptive Approaches to the Industrial Utilisation of CO2’ (Disruptive Ansätze zur industriellen Nutzung von CO2) with the aim to investigate novel approaches for the conversion of CO2 from industrial point sources or the atmosphere. These approaches are intended to either make existing drop-in solutions significantly more efficient or target completely new products and markets.

Funding is provided in two modules. The first module supports pre-competitive R&D projects for the industrial use of CO2 as a carbon source. Projects must demonstrate a significant level of innovation and a high scientific and technical risk and should focus on fundamentally new, potentially disruptive approaches. Projects that test more advanced technologies on a demonstration scale are also eligible for funding. In this context, hybrid concepts and research at the interfaces between disciplines and the use of state-of-the-art methods (for example from the field of artificial intelligence) are also supported. The second module supports a networking and transfer project which conducts or commissions two scientific studies that address the legal framework for a comprehensive CO2 infrastructure and the potential of technological reduction of atmospheric methane.

Applications can be submitted by institutions of higher education, non-educational research institutions, commercial businesses, local authorities or non-governmental organisations in Germany.

Institutions of higher education and non-commercial research institutes can expect to receive full funding of project-related costs.