Invest Northern Ireland, Enterprise Ireland and InterTradeIreland have opened applications for a €26 million programme to support industrial decarbonisation across the island of Ireland. The Shared Island Sustainability Challenge Fund allocates €13 million to each jurisdiction and targets novel technologies implemented at operating manufacturing and industrial sites, rather than general business efficiency advice.
The application call opened on 12 October under the wider Shared Island Enterprise scheme, which brings together the three development agencies. In each jurisdiction, €10 million comes from the Irish Government’s Shared Island Fund, with an additional €3 million from Invest NI in Northern Ireland and €3 million from Enterprise Ireland in Ireland. Those allocations form the €26 million total; applicants will follow the relevant agency’s own programme route.
Projects introducing sustainability technologies at industrial scale are the priority, particularly where a first installation can generate transferable operating evidence. Proposals must demonstrate a credible reduction in environmental impact, supported by an identifiable industrial process and capital investment. General consultancy or routine efficiency advice sits outside the programme’s intended scope.
Northern Ireland’s published criteria require an Invest NI client company to propose a capital project with expenditure of at least £5 million, approximately €6 million, incurred by 31 December 2030. Projects must demonstrate significant value for the applicant or wider industry and a commercial and demonstrative benefit to the all-island economy. The £5 million figure is a minimum project spend, not a minimum grant or an assurance that eligible expenditure will be reimbursed in full.
The Northern Ireland application window runs from noon on 12 October until noon on 13 November 2026, although Invest NI may close it early if demand is high. An initial project synopsis is required. Companies applying for the Ireland allocation are directed to Enterprise Ireland, whose application arrangements are separate; the Northern Ireland deadline should not be assumed to govern the other jurisdiction’s process.
Flexible electrification projects could include equipment that replaces combustion heat, uses renewable electricity that would otherwise be curtailed, or shifts energy consumption without disrupting production. Electrifying a thermal process requires attention to the temperature required at the point of use, electrical capacity at the site, controls and the pattern of process demand. Merely substituting an electrical heater for a fuel-fired one does not demonstrate that the wider production system will operate efficiently or reliably.
Some processes have a degree of flexibility because the time at which energy is supplied can be separated from the time at which heat or mechanical work is required. Thermal storage can perform that function where the storage medium, discharge temperature and process controls are suitable. The fund also identifies long-duration energy storage and innovative renewable generation, but any claimed improvement will need a defensible comparison with the site’s existing operation.
In harder-to-abate operations, proposed technologies might draw on hydrogen, synthetic fuels, biogas or other approaches identified by the programme. Their feasibility depends on more than the rated efficiency of a single machine: fuel availability, storage and handling, process compatibility and the emissions boundary can substantially change the outcome. A trial that maintains product quality under real operating conditions supplies stronger evidence than one demonstrated only at laboratory scale.
Water-related projects can involve automated control of water use, recovery of process water and treatment for reuse. Treatment systems may combine separation stages, instrumentation and additional pumping or chemical inputs, so water savings must be assessed alongside the resources consumed in achieving them. The quality requirements of the downstream process are also decisive; recovered water that cannot meet them is not automatically a usable substitute for fresh supply.
The circularity and bioeconomy theme covers recovery and reuse of industrial by-products, residues and material streams. An industrial demonstrator must establish stable throughput, separation or conversion performance and a consistent recovered product that can meet the intended specification. Where a process uses variable feedstocks, controlling contamination and performance across different batches becomes part of the engineering problem, rather than a peripheral waste management exercise.
The €26 million challenge fund follows a separate €20 million Shared Island Sustainability Capital Grant scheme, under which six awards were announced in December 2025. The new call has its own application requirements and allocation arrangements. Applicants will need to distinguish the funding route from earlier awards when planning the eligibility, timing and financing of capital work.
Selection will depend on applications showing credible industrial designs, measurable environmental outcomes and the ability to spend within the programme period. The all-island objective does not remove the separate funding and assessment arrangements in the two jurisdictions. Northern Ireland applicants face the immediate 13 November deadline, with any subsequent installation work still subject to appraisal, grant terms and the practical constraints of capital project delivery.
