Our Story

The story of Clean Hydrogen JU begins in October 2002 with the High Level Group on Hydrogen, when Romano Prodi and former European Commissioners Loyola de Palacio and Philippe Busquin laid the grounds for the creation of a public-private partnership.

The High Level Group was an informal body with an advisory role. It involved 19 hydrogen-power stakeholders and included representatives of the research community, industry, public authorities and end-users. Together, they outlined the steps needed to enable a sustainable hydrogen-oriented economy.

The early EU Framework Programmes (FP) supported research and development in fuel cells and hydrogen technologies with increasing funding levels over time (145 M€ in FP5, 315 M€ in FP6). Nevertheless, these efforts were fragmented and uncoordinated across the different FP sub-programmes.

Recognising this issue, the High Level Group recommended the creation of a European Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology platform (HFP) (2004-2007), bringing together stakeholders from across the fuel cell and hydrogen energy supply chain – all committed to putting hydrogen on the clean energy map. The HFP emphasised the key role hydrogen and fuel cells have in Europe’s shift towards new and clean energy technologies.

The HFP confirmed that a coherent, long-term approach at EU level is essential for achieving critical mass in terms of scale, excellence and potential for innovation. The Commission’s proposal for a long-term public–private partnership in the 7th Framework Programme (FP7) of the European Community (2007-2013) in the form of a Joint Undertaking (JU) on Fuel Cells and Hydrogen was a consequential step to address the challenge.

A Council Regulation established on 30 May 2008 the FCH JU, as a public-private partnership (PPP) between the European Commission, European industry and research organisations. The total budget of the FCH JU was €940 million divided equally between the European Commission (FP7 funding of €470 mill.) and the industry and research communities.

The aim of the FCH JU under FP7 was to accelerate the development and deployment of fuel cells and hydrogen technologies by executing an integrated European programme of Research Technology Development (RTD) activities for the period 2007-2013.

The Council of the European Union formally agreed on the 6th May 2014 to continue the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Technology Initiative and to extend funding under the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme. This phase ran until 2020 and had a total matched budget of at least €1.33 bill. provided by the public-private trio – the European Commission (providing €665 million from H2020), the industry grouping Hydrogen Europe and the research grouping Hydrogen Europe Research.

The focus of FCH 2 JU was on accelerating the commercialisation of fuel cells and hydrogen technologies to ensure a world leading, competitive European FCH industry while increasing jobs and building a supply/value chain for hydrogen in Europe. These efforts have enabled several technologies to come close to maturity, alongside the development of high-profile projects in promising applications, and to achieve EU global leadership for future technologies, notably on electrolysers, hydrogen refuelling stations and megawatt-scale fuel cells. EU funded projects also allowed improvement in the understanding of the applicable regulation for boosting the production and utilisation of hydrogen in the EU.