In the ever-evolving landscape of European innovation, cascade funding is a pivotal tool driving the continent’s technological, digital, and green transformation. A specific funding tool introduced by the European Commission, cascade funding supports small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), research institutions, and startups, supporting them in bringing innovative solutions to the market. This decentralised funding approach is key to ensuring that Europe remains at the forefront of global innovation and sustainability.
What is Cascade Funding?
Cascade funding is a financial distribution model used by the European Commission in various EU funding programmes. It is designed to support SMEs, research institutions, and startups by allowing them to access financial resources through intermediary organisations. These organisations manage the funds and distribute them to smaller entities working on specific innovation projects. Cascade funding is central to several EU programmes, including Horizon Europe, as it helps bring innovative ideas to market by supporting local innovators across Europe. Due to the size of funding, which is generally limited to 60,000 EUR per individual project within an EU-funded programme, this instrument is typically used to promote small demo cases, pilot actions, proof of concepts – all of which facilitate and generate the impact and scaling up of innovative projects.
The importance of Cascade Funding for Europe’s innovation ecosystem
To fully understand the value of cascade funding, one has to look beyond the financial mechanism that it is. Indeed, it acts as a catalyst for driving sustainable growth across Europe. By providing targeted support to SMEs, it ensures that even smaller players with high-potential ideas have access to resources that can help them scale-up. This is especially important for encouraging the digital transformation and Europe’s green transition.
With EU funding increasingly directed toward solving challenges like climate change, resource efficiency, and technological advancement, cascade funding makes it possible for organisations to contribute directly to these goals and open the door to those that might otherwise struggle to secure funding, helping them grow and become part of the broader European innovation ecosystem.
META Group as an active player in Cascade Funding
META Group works with several high-impact EU-funded projects, supporting SMEs and innovative startups through its expertise in cascade funding:
- DEREMCO: This project, focused on de- and re-manufacturing for Circular Economy Investments in the Composite Industry, supports the composite materials sector by advancing circular economy solutions.
- NACHIP: This transformative initiative promotes the adoption of hydrogen-based energy solutions in the North Adriatic region.
- SCHIP: The Social Challenge Innovation Platform aims to create an online ecosystem to address social challenges through innovative, market-oriented solutions. It connects stakeholders, social innovators, and SMEs, supporting scalable solutions with grants, mentorship, and investor access while leveraging European networks to drive social impact.
In each of these projects, cascade funding is, or has been, used to facilitate adoption of the innovations produced within each project by allowing beneficiary SMEs to test and/or validate potential market applications of the proposed innovations.
These examples demonstrate how cascade funding is vital for turning innovative ideas into impactful solutions, especially when it comes to sustainability, digital technologies, and green solutions. META Group, alongside other partner organisations, implements funding distribution so that selected projects can receive and benefit from it.
As Lorenzo Barabani, Sales Manager at META Group, explains: “Cascade funding is a powerful tool that drives innovation and ensures that groundbreaking ideas have the resources they need to validate assumptions and market acceptance. At META Group, we are proud to support projects that develop innovations transforming industries and contributing to Europe’s green and digital future”.
Cascade funding is a powerful tool in advancing Europe’s innovation, sustainability, and economic development. By providing targeted financial support to SMEs and startups, it enables these organisations to tackle some of Europe’s most pressing challenges. Through its involvement in projects like DEREMCO, NACHIP, and SCHIP, META Group is playing a crucial role in accelerating impact-driven innovation.
Find out more about cascade funding for EU-funded projects here.