Carbon capture technology specialist Nuada has secured £2.2m in funding from the European Union’s innovation prize, the EIC Accelerator.
This recognition makes the Belfast-based firm the first company from Northern Ireland to be awarded funding from the programme.
Run by the European Innovation Council (EIC), the EIC Accelerator is a programme that offers support to startups and SMEs that have innovative, game-changing products, services or business models that could create new markets or disrupt existing ones in Europe and worldwide.
From over 1,200 proposals submitted by, the EIC selected 71 companies for funding, including five from the UK.
Nuada is a carbon capture company dedicated to decarbonising hard-to-abate sectors such as cement, lime, steel and energy from waste, through next-generation CO2 filtration technology that efficiently and economically captures the direct carbon emissions from these manufacturing processes.
The company’s growth journey has been supported by BGF, which invested £3.4m in the business in 2023.
The investment followed a £4.5m investment co-led by the Clean Growth Fund and Barclays, and nearly £3m of grant funding from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ).
Since receiving minority equity investment from BGF, the company has tripled the size of its team to 42 and last year opened a new, purpose-built 18,000 sq. ft manufacturing and development facility in Newtownabbey, Co Antrim.
“The award from the EIC Accelerator is another stamp of approval for Nuada’s technology and our potential to disrupt and advance industrial decarbonisation,” said Jose Casaban, co-CEO of Nuada.
“It was a highly competitive process, so being selected as one of only a handful of UK companies and the first in Northern Ireland to secure the award is very rewarding for our team of experts and fuels our mission to commercialise critical technology for decarbonising industry.”
Conor Hamill, co-CEO of Nuada, added: “The time to impact the market transition phase of the UK’s carbon capture, utilisation and storage vision is now.
“The energy intensity and equipment costs of the incumbent processes are just not sustainable to growth. The current expenditure levels and liabilities associated with these traditional capture solutions risk the pace and scale of the Government’s ambitions.
“Next generation capture technologies like Nuada’s are directly addressing these adoption barriers, and scaling new capture platforms will unlock the transition of Government from funder to enabler.”
In addition to the EIC Accelerator grant, Nuada announced that it has also recently been awarded a further £1.9m from another EU programme.
The funding awards will be used by Nuada to accelerate the scaling up and enhance the market readiness of its energy-efficient capture technology.
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