Boosting green economic recovery and open strategic autonomy in Strategic Digital Technologies through pre-commercial procurement (PCP action)

This destination will directly support the following Key Strategic Orientations (KSOs), as outlined in the Strategic Plan^[1]:

• KSO C, ‘Making Europe the first digitally-enabled circular, climate-neutral and sustainable economy through the transformation of its mobility, energy, construction and production systems’
• KSO A, ‘Promoting an open strategic autonomy by leading the development of key digital, enabling and emerging technologies, sectors and value chains to accelerate and steer the digital and green transitions through human-centred technologies and innovations’
• KSO D, ‘Creating a more resilient, inclusive and democratic European society, prepared and responsive to threats and disasters, addressing inequalities and providing high-quality health care, and empowering all citizens to act in the green and digital transitions.

Proposals for topics under this Destination should set out a credible pathway to contributing to the following expected impact of Cluster 4:

• Industrial leadership and increased autonomy in key strategic value chains with security of supply in raw materials, achieved through breakthrough technologies in areas of industrial alliances, dynamic industrial innovation ecosystems and advanced solutions for substitution, resource and energy efficiency, effective reuse and recycling and clean primary production of raw materials, including critical raw materials, and leadership in the circular economy.

The COVID-19 crisis, the war against Ukraine and other crises have shown that global competitiveness and resilience are two sides of the same coin. Resilience is about more than the ability to withstand and cope with shocks; it is an opportunity to undergo transitions in a sustainable and fair way. As the European Union and Associated Countries gear up to becoming a climate-neutral, circular and competitive economy by 2050, resilience will require paying attention to new vulnerabilities as entire sectors undergo deep transformations while creating opportunities for Europe’s industry to develop its own markets, products and services which boost competitiveness.

Research and innovation will be fundamental to spur industrial leadership, enhanced sustainability and resilience. It will support the modernisation of traditional industrial models while developing novel technologies, business models and processes. This should enhance the flexibility of the EU’s industrial base, and increase its resilience by reducing EU dependencies on third countries for critical raw materials and technologies.

The most relevant policies of the European Commission on this front are:

• The European Industrial Strategy of March 2020, and in particular the Update of May 2021: there is now a renewed momentum in the EU to tackle its strategic dependencies as well as to boost its resilience across key strategic areas. The Covid-19 crisis revealed the importance of improving production response and preparedness of EU industry, in support of its long-term competitiveness. The Industrial Strategy Update and the accompanying Staff Working Document on strategic dependencies, showed that 99 products in the most sensitive ecosystems included materials on the list of critical raw materials.
• The Circular Economy Action Plan of March 2020 announced initiatives along the entire life cycle of products. It targets how products are designed, promotes circular economy processes, encourages sustainable consumption, and aims to ensure that waste is prevented and resources used are kept in the EU economy for as long as possible.
• The Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability of October 2020 strategy aims to better protect citizens and the environment whilst boosting the innovation for safe and sustainable chemicals. It calls for actions in the frame of research and innovation to develop a Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSdB) framework and criteria and a Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda addressing research and innovation needs raised in the Strategy and beyond.
• The Zero Pollution Action Plan of May 2021 set’s out the objective that by 2050 air, water and soil pollution shall be reduced to levels no longer considered harmful to health and natural ecosystems, that respect the boundaries of the planet. The action plan aims to strengthen the EU green, digital and economic leadership, whilst creating a healthier, socially fairer Europe and planet. It provides a compass to mainstream pollution prevention in all relevant EU policies, to step up implementation of the relevant EU legislation and to identify possible gaps.
• The Materials 2030 Roadmap, presented by a large group of stakeholders, will enable the green and digital transition, anchoring on good design principles, combined with synergies between advanced materials, circularity, digital and industrial technologies. It calls for the evolution of materials research by uniting digital and material capacities and competences, combining technology push with market pull and united actions at Member States level, to benefit from Europe’s strength.
• The Digital Decade of March 2021, where the Commission presented a vision, targets and avenues for a successful digital transformation of Europe by 2030.
• The Fit for 55 Package of July 2021, delivering the EU's 2030 Climate Target on the way to climate neutrality, given the process industries’ 20% share of global greenhouse gas emissions.

The topics serving the objectives of this destination are structured as follows:

• Raw Materials for EU open strategic autonomy and successful transition to a climate-neutral and circular economy

Since the Work Programme 2021-22 was drafted, strategic dependencies have increased in importance, given their prominence in accelerating and delivering the green and digital transformation of the EU’s key industrial ecosystems, as well as the objective of supporting a more resilient European industry. The transition of the European industrial ecosystems is dependent on the supply of raw materials (both from primary and secondary sources) as many digital and green technologies rely on this supply. The focus in this Work Programme is on Diversifying the international supply chains of critical raw materials; and on Developing internal capacity for primary and secondary raw materials production.

• Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) chemicals and materials

Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) is an approach to the design, development and use of chemicals and materials that focuses on providing a function (or service), while reducing harmful impacts to human health and the environment. The Commission published a framework and criteria for Safe and Sustainable chemicals and materials in 2022. Projects across Horizon Europe developing new chemicals or materials are expected to adhere to the framework as of this Work Programme.

Under Horizon 2020 a series of research projects were funded aimed to define and implement a Safe-by-Design concept for nanomaterials. This generated a knowledge base that serves as the foundation for the SSbD concept, which is now a key feature of the Chemical Strategy for Sustainability. The new SSbD concept covers chemicals and materials, including advanced materials and therefore nanomaterials.

The focus on this work programme is on extending the portfolio of methods and models applicable in the SSbD framework as well as on the actual application of the framework to develop SSbD alternatives to substances of concern. Projects resulting from the SSbD topics are expected to contribute to extending the available scientific knowledge base for regulations and policy making.

• Strategic Innovation Markets driven by Advanced Materials

Materials, in particular advanced materials, are not only the backbone and source of prosperity of the European society. They will also play a decisive and enabling role in the twin green and digital transition. The Materials2030 Roadmap highlighted that innovation markets are the industrial perspective presenting the “market pull” to address societal needs and challenges under a long-term perspective. The focus in this Work Programme is on a systemic approach to develop the next generation solution-oriented advanced materials, which will offer faster, scalable and efficient responses to the societal and technological challenges, that are relevant and can be considered as opportunities for Europe’s society, economy and environment today and over the next three decades. The competition for critical raw materials (CRMs) Europe’s open strategic autonomy at risk in key technologies of the twin green and digital transition. Advanced materials may mitigate these risks by replacing or substituting CRMs.

Moreover, this Work Programme addresses data exchange and interoperability in materials modelling and characterisation across value chains, to support the green and digital transformation of European industry.

• Improving the resilience of EU businesses, especially SMEs and Startups

EU companies, in particular SMEs, need to have capabilities to respond in an agile and effective way to supply disruption, but also to be better equipped for dealing with such shocks in the future.

Business cases and exploitation strategies for industrialisation: This section applies only to those topics in this Destination, for which proposals should demonstrate the expected impact by including a business case and exploitation strategy for industrialisation.

The business case should demonstrate the expected impact of the proposal in terms of enhanced market opportunities for the participants and deployment in the EU, in the short to medium term. It should describe the targeted market(s); estimated market size in the EU and globally; user and customer needs; and demonstrate that the solutions will match the market and user needs in a cost-effective manner; and describe the expected market position and competitive advantage.

The exploitation strategy should identify obstacles, requirements and necessary actions involved in reaching higher TRLs (Technology Readiness Levels), for example: matching value chains, enhancing product robustness; securing industrial integrators; and user acceptance.

For TRL 7, a credible strategy to achieve future full-scale deployment in the EU is expected, indicating the commitments of the industrial partners after the end of the project.

Where relevant, in the context of skills, it is recommended to develop training material to endow workers with the right skillset in order to support the uptake and deployment of new innovative products, services, and processes developed in the different projects. This material should be tested and be scalable, and can potentially be up-scaled through the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+). This will help the European labour force to close the skill gaps in the relevant sectors and occupational groups and improve employment and social levels across the EU and associated countries.

In order to achieve the expected outcomes, for particular topics international cooperation is not mandatory but advised with some regions or countries, to get internationally connected and add additional specific expertise and value to the activities.

To achieve wider effects activities beyond R&I investments will be needed. Wider activities include the further development of skills and competencies (also via the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, in particular EIT Raw Materials, EIT Climate-KIC and EIT Digital); and the use of financial products under the InvestEU Fund for further commercialisation of R&I outcomes.

Synergies:

For raw materials, there are synergies with energy-intensive industries and in particular the circularity part; and with strategic innovation markets driven by advanced materials. A further synergy is with Cluster 5: Renewable energies and energy storage.

Safe and Sustainable by Design presents synergies with

Cluster 6 ‘Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture’ in areas Bio-based Innovation Systems in the EU Bioeconomy and Circular Systems;

Cluster 5 ‘Climate, Energy and Mobility’ in view of areas on lightweight materials;

Cluster 1 ‘Health’, Destination ‘Living and working in a health-promoting environment: research on impact of chemicals on human health’; and

Horizon Europe Partnership on the Assessment of Risks from Chemicals (PARC): on exposure and hazard activities as well as the SSbD toolbox and case studies.

Strategic Innovation Markets driven by Advanced Materials presents synergies with the energy-intensive and manufacturing industries, in view of both the circularity approaches and low-carbon technologies; and with

Cluster 1 ‘Health’, in view of areas on bio-based materials;

Cluster 5 ‘Climate, Energy and Mobility’ in view of areas on lightweight materials;

Cluster 6 ‘Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture’ in view of areas on agrochemicals.

While focusing exclusively on civilian applications, there may be synergies with actions conducted under the European Defence Fund (EDF) or its precursor programmes (Preparatory Action on Defence Research and European Defence Industry Development Programme), notably in the field of advanced sensing and advanced materials.

Innovation Actions — Legal entities established in China are not eligible to participate in Innovation Actions in any capacity. Please refer to the Annex B of the General Annexes of this Work Programme for further details.

[1] Whilst Cluster 4 addresses KSOs A, C and D, KSO B is becoming increasingly important, given the role of the industry highlighted in the zero-pollution action plan.

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