On May 17, 2018, the National Center for Research and Development announced the initiation of a new procedure within the Hydrogen Storage Program. The objective was to develop a Hydrogen Storage System for use with fuel cells and its demonstration in a Mobile Facility. This is to create an alternative to the use of fossil fuels and create a field for competition in creating solutions in the field of access to “clean” energy. The National Center for Research and Development is responsible for the development of assumptions, regulations and implementation.

The analysis presents the main assumptions of the program is correlated to the current legal situation related to the financing of Research and Development. An in-depth study concerns the ways of using innovative partnership and its placement in the system of European Union legal acts. The idea of the pre-commercial procurement procedure (Pre-Commercial Procurement), which was developed to support the implementation of prototypes of solutions – resulting from research and development – with a high potential for possible commercialization, was described in details. This procedure is characterized by ensuring the financing of a product or service at an early stage of development. Although this creates the risk of failure of the project, it stimulates technological development.

This article aims to identify and assess the impact of capital structure factors on financing strategies of mining industry enterprises in Central and E astern E uropean (CEE ) countries in comparison to W estern E uropean (WE ) Union countries. T he research contributes to determining which of the main theories of capital structure best describes the financial strategies employed in the examined sector. T he analysis encompasses mining companies from eight WE and four CEE countries, utilising panel data models with information spanning from 2000 to 2020. T he study covers various firm-specific variables commonly employed in similar research, along with the effects of country and year.
The main findings indicate a significant similarity in both the capital structure and the influence of the analysed factors on leverage across the two regions. This homogeneity is attributed to the industrial specificity of the mining sector, which appears to supersede country-specific or firm-size specific features. Moreover, examining the impact of variables on capital structure considering different debt maturity terms reveals that the financial strategies of the analysed companies align with the pecking order and agency theory of capital structure. T his suggests that mining companies predominantly rely on internal financing, viewing debt primarily as a tool to discipline managers. Due to data limitations in the employed BACH database, the study does not encompass all EU countries, highlighting the potential for further research incorporating other regions. T he identified similarities in capital structure, along with the impact of various factors, provide insights for financial decision-makers in mining firms, and investors operating in both CEE and WE EU countries. Str