Technical details · Invest Europe ESG Reporting

Introduction

This machine-readable ESG reporting template matches precisely to the 2026/27 Invest Europe GP-LP ESG Reporting Template.

The goal of this template is to facilitate ESG data collection and make ESG reporting seamless across different reporting software platforms.

The machine-readable format would not have been possible without the development of an earlier version — the 2023/2024 template — developed by Atlas Metrics for KfW Capital.

This version was developed by Reframe Venture in partnership with Invest Europe and a consortium of ESG software platforms, including Apiday, Atlas, AtomInvest, Kara, ImpactNexus, MetricESG, and Novata.

AHow data moves

For data privacy and security, portfolio companies and GPs handle the export files themselves. Direct platform-to-platform transfer is not currently possible.

Platforms implementing the MRF need to build both import and export functionality. This validator and its open-source code can help with that.

Export

Portfolio companies and GPs obtain an MRF-compliant export file from their ESG reporting platform. Make sure you have appropriate consent to move the data.

Validate

Both the exporting and the importing platform should check the file with this validator.

Import

The file can then be imported into a supported ESG data platform by those with consent.

Detailed overview The Invest Europe MRF flowchart shows how the MRF helps GPs and portfolio companies answer multiple reporting requests.

Disputes between platforms

All platforms should read and agree to the Invest Europe MRF dispute process.

BEncoding

Files must be encoded in UTF-8 or UTF-16. The validator accepts UTF-8 with or without a byte order mark (BOM), and UTF-16 with a BOM.
Field delimiters must be commas (,). Semicolons are not supported.
The decimal separator must be a dot (.), and numbers must not use digit grouping.
Lines are delimited with CRLF (\r\n, "Windows line endings"). The validator also accepts LF-only files, but notes this because some importing platforms may not.
No field needs more than one line, so avoid line breaks inside fields. If a field does contain a line break, comma or double quote, it must be wrapped in double quotes (standard CSV quoting, which Excel and Google Sheets apply automatically). Line breaks are real LF characters, not the escaped text \n.

Microsoft Excel

Save with File › Save As › "CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited) (*.csv)". The plain "CSV (Comma delimited)" option saves in your system's legacy encoding (for example Windows-1252), so accented characters and symbols such as € are not UTF-8.

Excel's locale dependency Excel uses the operating system's "list separator" and decimal symbol when writing CSV files. With US or UK English settings these are a comma and a dot. In many European locales they are a semicolon and a comma, which produces a non-compliant file. The MRF only supports commas as delimiters and dots as decimal separators.

Google Sheets

File › Download › Comma-separated values (.csv) produces a UTF-8, comma-delimited file, which is compliant. Only the current sheet is exported.

CColumns: field specification

Export files have exactly six columns, and the first row (header row) must be exactly:

COMPOUND_ID,REPORTING_PERIOD,UNIT,VALUE,STATUS,COMMENTS

COMPOUND_ID

Predefined in the specification and cannot be changed. Each compound ID should appear exactly once.

REPORTING_PERIOD

The calendar year the value relates to, for example 2024, 2025 or 2026. It must be the same on every row of the file. Metrics that refer to the "previous reporting year" (such as total_ftes_end_of_previous_report_year) still use the same reporting period as all other rows.

UNIT

The unit of the value. It only applies to numerical values. Monetary values are always in the currency given in metric 0.1.12 (currency). All other units are predefined, cannot be changed and are for reference only.

VALUE

The submitted value for the metric. It is ignored unless STATUS is provided. Most rows have further constraints (types, ranges and permitted options), which are documented in the specification.

Numbers use a dot as the decimal separator and no digit grouping:

1,5
123,00.5
123.00,5
100_342_231.4567

5
0.1
7.333
100342231.4567

Units without prefixes. The conceptual framework sometimes uses scaled units such as "millions". The MRF does not use unit prefixes, so report values in the base unit shown in the specification (for example the full currency amount) and check that your units match.

Percentages: 100% is written as 100, not 1.0.

Option values ("STRING from [tab]") must be one of the option handles listed in that tab of the specification, for example united_kingdom rather than "United Kingdom". Handles are case-sensitive.

Free text may be up to 20,000 characters long. Tab and newline characters inside text must not be escaped.

STATUS

provided: There is compliant data for this row in the VALUE field.
not_available: The data point has not been shared because it is not available. For a required metric this is not sufficient. The VALUE is ignored and not imported.
not_applicable: The data point has not been shared because it is not applicable. For example, percentage_turnover_tobacco_activities is only needed if tobacco_activities = yes, and can otherwise be marked not_applicable. The VALUE is ignored and not imported.

COMMENTS

Free text for comments on the metric. Do not put important data here, because importing platforms are not required to review comments. A good use is explaining why a metric is not provided, or that prior-year data was used. A bad use is explaining that the unit differs from the specification, which is not acceptable.

DSpecification of rows and values

The first row is the header row described above.
All other rows may be in any order, though following the order of the specification is recommended.

Explicit omissions Data points cannot be omitted by leaving out rows. They can only be omitted by explicitly marking them not_available or not_applicable.

Granularity, interpretation and methodology

Values and units must match the metric definition and calculation method. Never submit a value whose meaning or calculation method does not exactly correspond to the conceptual framework and the MRF. Precision is key for machine-readable imports and comparable data sets, so observe the permitted values.

ENotes on the development of the MRF from the conceptual framework

The MRF is designed to map precisely to the Invest Europe Excel ESG Reporting Template (the "conceptual framework"). This has a few consequences.

Country lists. country_of_domicile and primary_country_of_operations take values from a predetermined list of 66 countries in the country_list tab of the specification. ISO country codes were considered, but they did not suit people filling in the conceptual framework directly, so the MRF uses the template's list.
Emissions granularity. The conceptual framework splits Scope 2 emissions into location-based and market-based (PAI 1.2 and 1.3), and asks for the primary and secondary Scope 3 categories (2.2.5.17 to 2.2.5.20). It does not split Scope 1 emissions by category, because that was not considered relevant for reporting. A Scope 1 split would have helped interoperability, but the main purpose of interoperability is to ease reporting, so the MRF sticks to the conceptual framework.
SFDR PAI section. The conceptual framework repeats some core metrics in its PAI section so that the section is complete in its own right. The MRF does not repeat them: it follows the template's order until the PAI section and leaves out these rows, which are already captured.

PAI reference	Compound ID	Invest Europe metric
PAI 1.1	`total_scope_1_emissions`	2.2.3 · If Scope 1 GHG emissions, please specify
PAI 1.4	`total_scope_3_emissions`	2.2.5 · If Scope 3 GHG emissions, please specify
PAI 5.1	`total_energy_consumption`	2.4.1 · Total energy consumption
PAI 5.3	`energy_consumption_renewable`	2.4.2 · Renewable energy consumption
PAI 7.1	`sites_affecting_biodiversity_areas`	2.6.1 · Activities negatively affecting biodiversity-sensitive areas
PAI 8.1	`total_emissions_to_water`	2.5.1 · Emissions to water
PAI 9.1	`quantity_hazardous_radioactive_waste_generated`	2.5.2 · Hazardous and radioactive waste generated
PAI 12.1	`unadjusted_gender_pay_gap`	3.2.1 · % Unadjusted gender pay gap
PAI 13.1	`number_of_board_members_female`	4.1.2 · Number of female board members
PAI 13.2	`number_of_board_members_male`	4.1.5 · Number of male board members
PAI 13.3	`total_number_of_board_members`	4.1.1 · Total number of board members

FUpdates since the 19 March 2025 version

This page was checked against the 2026 specification workbooks, the 2026 Invest Europe template and this validator. Compared with the March 2025 PDF:

Partner: the MRF is now produced in partnership with Reframe Venture (previously VentureESG).
Validator: this 2026 validator replaces the 2025 version. The 2025 source code repository has been renamed to InvestEurope-ReframeVenture-MRF-2025.
PAI table: five compound IDs were listed incorrectly. The correct IDs are sites_affecting_biodiversity_areas (not activities_affecting_biodiversity_areas), total_emissions_to_water (not emissions_to_water), quantity_hazardous_radioactive_waste_generated (not hazardous_radioactive_waste_generated), number_of_board_members_female (not number_of_female_board_members) and number_of_board_members_male (not number_of_male_board_members).
Removed 2025 metrics: the not_applicable example used listed_ticker, and the country-list note mentioned other_EU_country_of_operation_1 and _2. All three were removed in 2026.
Excel: the PDF said Excel's default CSV export is compliant. This is only reliable with "CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited)", because the plain CSV option is not UTF-8.
Line breaks: clarified that fields containing line breaks use standard CSV double-quote wrapping.
Reporting period examples: updated to 2024, 2025 or 2026.
Documentation link: the Notion documentation linked from the specification workbooks (venturesg.notion.site) no longer resolves. This page replaces it.