The Clean Hydrogen Partnership has set up a Hydrogen Valleys Facility aimed to support Hydrogen Valleys and a broad range of stakeholders within the hydrogen context to advance their hydrogen projects and to contribute to capacity building, knowledge sharing and skill development.
As part of this Hydrogen Valleys Facility, the Clean Hydrogen Partnership provides critical Project Development Assistance (PDA) to Hydrogen Valleys at different maturity stages to accelerate their progress and to advance their projects towards Final Investment Decision (FID).
Hydrogen Valleys are hydrogen ecosystems that cover a specific geography ranging from local or regional focus to specific national or international regions, thereby supplying with a common hydrogen supply infrastructure several sectors in their geography such as mobility, industry and energy end uses. Across their geographic scope, Hydrogen Valleys cover multiple steps in the hydrogen value chain, ranging from hydrogen production, storage of hydrogen and distribution to offtakers via various modes of transport.
The Clean Hydrogen Partnership has launched a second Call for Applications for PDA support that has opened on April 20th 2026 with the aim to award PDA services to up to 13 Hydrogen Valleys located within an EU member state or a country associated to Horizon Europe via two different tracks of support programmes: PDA light and PDA plus.
The 13 PDAs will be awarded within three separate programme lines, each with a separate application and evaluation process:
- Up to 5 PDA pluses for Hydrogen Valleys in EU Member States or countries associated to Horizon Europe
- Up to 4 PDA lights for Hydrogen Valleys in EU Member States or countries associated to Horizon Europe
- Up to 4 PDA lights for Hydrogen Valleys located in an EU 13 Member State
The PDA support services are carried out in two diffferent support programmes:
- PDA light: This programme is aimed at supporting early-stage hydrogen projects in advancing towards a compelling pre-feasibility project concept. The total programme duration is 6 weeks.
- PDA plus: This programme is aimed at supporting more advanced hydrogen projects that already have a concept study (FEL 1 or equivalent) in place and that have a Commercial Date of Operations of the Hydrogen Valley before 01/01/2030. The total programme duration is 12 weeks.
The Clean Hydrogen Partnership has mandated the consulting firm Roland Berger, with its specialised
subcontractors Worley and Inycom, to provide the PDA services under this call and manage the application process
(PDA Service Consultants). The PDA services will cover the following four dimensions:
- Commercial aspects, incl. comercial structuring, financial modelling, hydrogen and derivatives market studies, offtake strategy and financing and funding
- Technical aspects, incl. technical concept optimization, process design, tech selection, site selection, cost estimates and risk management
- Regulatory aspects, incl. permits, certifications and socio-economic impact assessments
- Valley governance aspects, incl. consortium building, stakeholder management, project governance and planning
The submission deadline for this Call for Applications is Friday, June 26th 2026 23:59 CET. The evaluation results will be communicated by mid-July 2026. After the notification of applicants by mid-July, a mandatory scoping phase of c. 2-3 weeks takes place for successful applicants.
The Project Development Assistance (awarded with this call) is planned to start by beginning of September 2026.