The first STEP Seals are out!

The STEP Seal is a quality label for excellent and high-potential projects. It enables them to get extra visibility and explore possibilities for additional EU public and private funding and support services. It is awarded by the European Commission.

The first 140 projects awarded the STEP Seal were selected through calls for proposals under STEP, namely under the 2023 call for proposals of the Innovation Fund, a 2024 call for proposal of EU4Health, and a 2024 call from Horizon Europe. These calls are funded by the EU budget. The projects aim at developing, respectively, cutting-edge clean technologies with a focus on energy and industry (Innovation Fund), biotechnologies for the development of vaccines and antivirals and the greener manufacturing of medicines in the EU (EU4Health) and digital technologies for space-related applications (Horizon Europe/Space).

Examples of breakthrough innovations include the development of components for offshore wind towers (Poland), first-of-a-kind sea freight service powered by hydrogen cells (Netherlands), manufacturing of PV modules (Italy), CO2 Capture for Storage technologies (Denmark), radiation-resistant integrated circuits for in-space applications (multi-country) and more efficient cell-line development technologies for the production of vaccines and therapeutics (Spain).

Each project awarded a STEP Seal received a certificate and a leaflet to explain what can be expected from the new feature, with all useful links at hand.

Projects being awarded a STEP Seal are listed on the STEP Portal. The aim is to enhance visibility to these projects and help them attract public funding by certifying their quality and contribution to the STEP objectives.  

The Commission intends to promote these projects among national authorities of the EU that implement the EU Budget across the 27 EU Member States and their regions, e.g. managing authorities of Cohesion Policy Funds and delegates in charge of the Recovery and Resilience Plans in Member States, and also towards private investors. The STEP Seal could help projects attract private finance, particularly from investors seeking derisked projects with a strong Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) profile. However, the STEP Seal does not imply automatic access to additional funding.

Learn more about the STEP Seals here

The press release with more details on the first batch of STEP Seal projects is here: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_24_6250