The chemical industry is central to Europe’s ambitions for climate neutrality, circularity, and sustainable growth. Achieving these goals requires not only new technologies but also new ways of working together. Launched by the European Commission in 2024, the Innovation Centre for Industrial Transformation and Emissions (INCITE) can support this transformation by providing a platform for continuous and secure information exchange on innovative technologies.
INCITE has the mission to identify, assess, and promote innovative techniques that can help energy-intensive industries such as the chemical industry achieve climate, circularity, resource efficiency, and zero pollution ambitions.
Acting as a bridge between innovators and the broader industrial ecosystem, it provides a structured, collaborative, and secure process to support the development and implementation of promising technologies, with continuous input from all key stakeholders.
Although INCITE does not provide funding, its assessments inform policy priorities and can help steer public and private funding towards the most promising solutions.
How can companies benefit?
Short- to medium-term benefits:
- Increased visibility for innovative techniques through inclusion in the INCITE Annual Report and Information Platform.
- Identification of funding gaps and implementation barriers (e.g., permitting, legislation, market access).
- Opportunities to showcase benefits and gain recognition at the European level.
Medium- to long-term benefits:
- Early identification of techniques for potential inclusion in future BREF/BAT conclusions, which can lead to regulatory advantages such as faster permitting or special flexibilities for emerging techniques.
- Support in overcoming deployment barriers, including regulatory, permitting, and funding challenges.
How to engage with INCITE?
Companies can submit their innovations via a secure, confidential process. Submissions require a technical description, project status, maturity level, environmental benefits, economic data, and identification of barriers.
INCITE organises meetings with project leaders and technology providers to refine submissions and ensure accuracy.
Only non-confidential information is published, and all data is subject to company approval and high cybersecurity standards.
Cefic contributes to INCITE’s annual reports and information platform, ensuring visibility for innovative techniques and helping identify funding gaps. To facilitate continuous exchanges between industry players, academia and policymakers, Cefic organised a workshop in October 2025, the first of a series to provide practical guidance on how companies can engage with this European initiative.
For any questions, please contact Jean Godts (Cefic Senior Manager in charge of BREF, Process Safety and Chemical Security (including Cyber Security).