Climate Market Accelerator

Institute’s role: Core partner and UK pilot lead

Background: The aim of the Climate Market Accelerator (CMA) is to speed up the time it takes for climate change adaptation and mitigation innovations to reach the market. The CMA is a pan-European project, working with leading experts to help demand side partners define real world challenges in ways which will stimulate suppliers, innovators and researchers to respond with effective solutions.    

Challenge: The market in climate change adaptation and mitigation innovations is still young and a lack of confidence in new approaches, restricted opportunities to trial innovations and concerns about risk and reward are acting as barriers to take-up. Alongside this, many innovation support initiatives tend to focus on the supply side (technology push), rather than on the demands of buyers (market pull).  

Activity: CMA activity currently centres around four pilots, one of which is being carried out in the UK and is being led by the Institute. Focusing on the built environment, the Institute is setting up three buyer networks of property owners, managers and investors, actively driving the low carbon agenda. Known as Sustainable Innovation Forums (SIFs), these will provide a key opportunity to identify demands and challenges in the retail, residential and commercial property sectors.

The other CMA pilots are focusing on:

• supporting innovation in the procurement of climate resilient water engineering measures by water boards in the Netherlands
• the development of a buyer network for metropolitan utilities in Berlin
• investigating the role of public procurement in enhancing innovation and the opportunities for implementing a smart procurement network across European cities.

Learning and best practice from the project pilots will be used to inform further market accelerator activity.

More information about CMA is available here.

Institute partners: The Institute is joint lead partner with Deltares (Netherlands).  

Funders: The project is co-funded by the Climate Knowledge and Innovation Community (Climate-KIC), an initiative of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT).