NACHIP — 2nd Open Call for SMEs (clean hydrogen)
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NACHIP
Free NACHIP fit checkNACHIP, the North Adriatic Clean Hydrogen Investment Platform, is an Interregional Innovation Investments project that funds SMEs to bring hydrogen solutions into its pilot projects. The second open call pays up to €60,000 per SME and covers 100% of the costs, but it is narrow on two fronts: the scheme is written for mature technology, and the company has to sit in one of the named regions, which for most countries on the list excludes the capital.
- Funding
- Up to €60,000 per SME. Sub-project costs are funded at 100% as a lump sum, and no financial accounting or reporting is required for this call. Payment comes in two instalments: 50% after contract signature and 50% after the activities are assessed at the end of the sub-project. A consortium of up to three SMEs can receive up to €180,000 together, never more than €60,000 per member. Total budget for this call: €560,000.
- Who can apply
- SMEs, individually or in a consortium of up to three, in which every member must be an SME. You must be officially established in an eligible region at the moment you apply, and you submit a document proving that establishment with the application. SMEs that are part of the NACHIP consortium are not eligible, and funding the same activities twice, for example through another I3 project, is not allowed.
- Where you must be established
- The call names 16 countries, but for most of them only specific NUTS 2 regions. Slovenia: both regions. Croatia: Adriatic, Pannonian and Northern Croatia; the City of Zagreb is not named. Italy: Friuli Venezia Giulia, Lazio, Umbria, Veneto, Sardinia, Sicily, Calabria, Basilicata, Puglia, Campania and Molise, so not Lombardy, Piedmont, Tuscany or Emilia-Romagna. Hungary and Latvia qualify as a whole. Belgium: only Wallonia. France: only the overseas regions. Spain: only Andalusia, Extremadura and Castilla-La Mancha. And without their capital region: Portugal (no Lisbon), Greece (no Attica), Bulgaria (no Sofia region), Romania (no Bucharest-Ilfov), Slovakia (no Bratislava), Poland (no Warsaw capital region), Czechia (four regions, not Prague) and Lithuania (no Vilnius region).
- Scope and maturity
- The scheme is written for hydrogen solutions above TRL 7 that can be validated in NACHIP’s pilots, and the Technical Annex names six pilot challenges: fibres (FABER), catalyst design (SERICHIM), design and compactness (SERICHIM), process optimisation with a decision support tool (University of Zagreb, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing), RFNBO hydrogen certification services for the Velenje pilot (ECUBES), and a renovation approach for derisking hydrogen deployment (KSSENA). Neither the TRL nor the pilot link is one of the formal eligibility checks, which cover SME status, establishment in an eligible region and on-time submission. The scoring does assess alignment with NACHIP’s objectives, a criterion the coordinator scores itself. Each sub-project runs for at most six months; a longer duration is not eligible.
- Programme and selection
- Open from 7 September to 9 November 2026 through the NACHIP application portal. The guide gives the closing date but no closing time, so do not plan on the last hours. Proposals are scored on relevance, quality and potential impact, 20 points each, for a maximum of 60, and anything below 35 is rejected. Shortlisted applicants are interviewed, and the contract follows a positive interview. On a tie, the team with the highest share of women is preferred. Questions can be sent until 9 November.
- Deadline
- 9 Nov 2026(no closing time stated in the guide)— 56 days remaining
- Max grant
- €60,000
- Official source
- https://www.nachip.eu/open-calls/ ↗
Is this the right call for you? 5 conditions decide it
- 01Your company is not officially established in one of the named regions at the moment you apply. For most listed countries the capital region is excluded, in Belgium only Wallonia qualifies, and in France only the overseas regions.
- 02Your solution has no direct link to one of the six pilot challenges in the Technical Annex, or it is still an early prototype for a scheme written for solutions above TRL 7. This counts in the scoring, not in the formal eligibility check.
- 03Your sub-project needs more than six months. A longer duration is not eligible.
- 04A member of your consortium is not an SME.
- 05Your company is part of the NACHIP consortium, or the same activities are already funded elsewhere.
Not a match on one of these? Then this call is not the one, which says nothing about the next. Calls open continuously: the free Match Report tells you which call does fit, or tells you plainly that none of them do, and our weekly digest tells you when a call you can enter opens.
Can an SME in Warsaw, Prague or Athens apply to NACHIP?
No. Poland, Czechia and Greece are on the list, but only with named regions, and the capital regions are not among them. The same holds for Sofia, Bucharest, Bratislava, Vilnius and Lisbon, and the City of Zagreb is not named either. In Belgium only Wallonia qualifies, in France only the overseas regions. Hungary and Latvia are eligible as a whole. Check your company’s NUTS 2 region against section 2.1 of the Open Call Text first, because you have to prove your establishment there with the application.
What TRL do you need for NACHIP?
The scheme is written for solutions above TRL 7, but that is not a formal eligibility check. The Open Call Text describes the scheme as support for hydrogen-based solutions at a TRL above 7, connected to pilot projects that can be validated and deployed in real-life settings. The eligibility step in section 4.1 checks only SME status, establishment in an eligible region and submission before the call closes. The scoring criteria do not name TRL either; they assess, among other things, alignment with NACHIP’s objectives and the technical-financial feasibility of your plan. The text names no separate target level.
How much of the budget do you have to co-finance yourself?
Nothing. Sub-project costs are funded at 100% as a lump sum, and no financial accounting or reporting is required. You receive 50% after signing the contract and the other 50% after your activities are assessed at the end, so you carry the second half of the work until the sub-project closes.
Do you need a consortium for NACHIP, or can a single SME apply?
A single SME can apply. You can also form a consortium of up to three, and every member has to be an SME. Each member can receive at most €60,000, so a consortium reaches €180,000 at most. One sentence early in section 2.1 mentions other legal entities, but the explicit rule a few paragraphs later is that all consortium members must be SMEs, and that is the rule to plan around.
Why are NACHIP applications rejected?
Before scoring, on eligibility: a company that is not an SME, is not established in a named region, or submits after the call closes is not assessed further, and a sub-project longer than six months is declared non-eligible. After that, on points: relevance, quality and potential impact are each worth 20, and a proposal below 35 out of 60 is rejected. Shortlisted applicants are interviewed before a contract is offered, so a proposal that scores well still has to hold up in conversation.
Verified against NACHIP-2nd-Open-Call.pdf (Open Call Text, 12 pages) and Technical-annex-2nd-Open-Call.pdf (2 pages), published September 2026 and retrieved 13 September 2026. The guide states a closing date but no closing time. No applicant info session for this second call was found at the time of writing. Official source: https://www.nachip.eu/open-calls/ ↗
We checked this call against its Open Call Text and Technical Annex. Two checks come before any writing. First your region: a company in Warsaw, Prague, Athens, Sofia, Bucharest, Bratislava, Vilnius, Lisbon, the City of Zagreb, Flanders, Brussels or mainland France cannot apply, even though its country is named. Second fit: the scheme is written for solutions above TRL 7 with a clear link to one of six pilot challenges. That is not a formal eligibility check, but the coordinator scores alignment with its objectives itself. An early prototype, or a solution with no direct pilot link, is not worth the effort here, however generously the call is funded. Pass both, and the intake below tells us within 2 working days whether a six-month sub-project is realistic.
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