European Public Funding for FOAK: Lessons for American Companies
**This is a session hosted within Node's FOAK Summit. You must be registered for both the FOAK Summit and this event in order to attend**
For many large-scale FOAK projects, public funding is not optional; it's existential. As US public funding contracts, American companies building FOAK plants are looking to Europe, where tens of billions of euros still back commercial-scale deployment.
But expanding to Europe still means navigating a new market, a different set of partners, a distinct value chain, and new ways of accessing both public and private financing.
Joined by Sublime Systems, HSBC, and CFS's Brussels-based Europe Lead, and drawing on CFS's work supporting applications to the EU Innovation Fund (Europe's €40B FOAK grant program), we'll cover what it actually takes to build in Europe: how public funding shapes the capital stack, what European funders reward and penalize, and the practical questions, from partners to permitting, that decide whether a project is viable at all.
This is for technology providers and developers considering whether Europe belongs on their roadmap, and the investors and financiers evaluating whether to back them.
Speakers:
Dr. Glen Junor, Director of Public Sector Programs, Sublime Systems
Austin Badger, Global Head of Climate & Deep Tech, HSBC
Alun Jones, Europe Lead for Project Development, Climate Finance Solutions
Moderated by Joel Armin-Hoiland, Founder and CEO, Climate Finance Solutions
Schedule:
2:30pm doors open
2:45–3:45pm panel
3:45–4:30pm networking
About CFS: Climate Finance Solutions is a climate grants and public funding advisory firm working across Europe, North America, and other global markets. Its team has secured over $1.8B in public funding globally and over €500M in European funding for climate technology companies and project developers, with a focus on large-scale and FOAK projects.
About the FOAK Summit: Node's FOAK Summit brings together 500 senior leaders from across the value chain, including capital providers, EPCs, strategic corporates, offtakers, insurers, regulators, and growth stage startup founders who are gearing up for a FOAK deployment. For a full description and agenda of the FOAK Summit: FOAK Summit Main Event Page