Partnerships
Environmental Investment Centre (EIC) is a foundation run by Estonian Ministry of Climate and implements National, Bilateral & EU Structural Funds with annual budget of 150 MEUR, up to 40 thematic grant calls and 1500 projects. EIC´s portfolio is structured into four focus areas: climate & biodiversity; circular economy & resource efficiency; energy & mobility; forestry. Additionally, EIC facilitates local and international incentives in cooperation with public and private sector, academia and NGO´s. Our quality marks since year 2000 are high client satisfaction & low repayment rate with excellent know-how on EU funding (procurements, state aid, cost-benefit analysis). EIC´s 85 employees work across Estonia with major offices in Tallinn and Tartu.
EIC offers wide range of activities:
granting agency supervising the use of funds from state budget, EU and other donors;
applicant, beneficiary & partner for Interreg, LIFE, CEF, Horizon Europe projects;
leading partner for systemic change: thematic networks & value chain dialogues, design sprints & hackathons, green data leverage & policy input, conferences & seminars.
What kind of partnerships are we looking for? We seek climate & environment related institutional partners to:
upskill, share knowledge & best practices,
leverage funding & donorships, generate pilots,
raise public awareness and dialogues.
Our priority areas for 2024-2026 are blue economy; municipalities in green transition & climate adaption; youth empowerment & green innovation. Additionally, we will continue with on-going ventures related to circular economy & businesses in green transition and climate incentives for development countries.
Blue economy: a new approach for sustainable blue economy in the EU has gained priority in EIC´s activities - as Baltic Sea country with over 2000 islands, we have remarkable on- and offshore energy potential and fishery traditions, proper marine industry and related services (i.e. logistics, tourism). There are several links between EIC´s portfolio and EU incentives related to blue economy: monitoring & building infrastructure, R&D/innovation projects, inventory of shipwrecks, cleaning up the sea & coastal areas, smart data usage, green-tech accelerators etc.
Municipalities in green transition & climate adaption: majority of EIC´s investments go via municipalities, to whom we have plethora of grants such as development of local energy & climate plans, renewal of (waste)water, heat & waste systems, greening the cities, rising awareness etc. EIC has launched R-Club (R- Roheline, green in English), knowledge and cooperation HUB for local leaders focusing on environmental and climate challenges, which are conceptualized to generate joint investment projects. Club offers also inspiration and lessons learned on day-to-day sustainable practices.
Youth empowerment & green innovation: youth engagement has been always present in EIC´s portfolio as young people are future green leaders. Besides environmental challenges we see rise of un-employment, lack of participation or rather destructive environmental action, mental health issues, spread of fake news and conflicts related to migration. EIC has number of initiatives to engage & upskill youth: green competition Negavatt and thematic green-tech accelerators, encouragement of entrepreneurial mindset and dialogues for better participatory democracy.
Circular economy & businesses in green transition, climate incentives for development countries: Green Deal and Climate Law bring focus on businesses who must turn sustainable & circular, mitigate climate risks and face twin-transition (digital-green). Estonia has challenges with waste management, as our resource efficiency, capability to sort, recycle and valorize waste is lagging. At the same time, strong digitalization, appetite for innovation and lively start-up ecosystem can bring both local and international solutions, which will grow faster and further with the help of international networking.
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