Strategic Partnerships for Raw Materials: Innovative Approaches for sustainable production of Critical Raw Materials (IA)

The research and innovation under this Destination will contribute to a paradigm shift, as regards the availability, development, use and disposal of chemicals and materials. This is necessary to guarantee Europe’s technological sovereignty and capacity to deliver on the twin green and digital transitions (it is thus strongly linked to the objectives of the Destination ‘Achieving global leadership in climate-neutral, circular and digitised industrial and digital value chains’).

To enable such a shift, an innovative, strong European R&I ecosystem for circular chemicals and materials is needed, working across different technology readiness levels. Bringing knowledge and skills together across the materials’ value chains is key to ensuring that this shift can materialise.

The requirements of the European Green Deal for safety, sustainability and circularity should be considered across the life cycle of a chemical or material. The 2022 Commission Recommendation on ‘Safe and Sustainable by Design’ (SSbD) sets out a new framework on how to achieve these objectives.

R&I activities should contribute to strengthen EU’s critical raw materials capacities along all stages of the value chain, increasing our resilience by reducing dependencies, increasing preparedness and promoting supply chain sustainability and circularity, in line with the Critical Raw Materials Act. It is necessary to improve the energy and process efficiency of extractive and processing activities and minimise their environmental impact, including GHG emissions. Advancements need to be made on finding options for replacing critical raw materials with other (advanced) materials offering at least the same functionality and taking into account the existing environmental concerns.

Advanced materials (including amongst others nano- and 2D materials) and chemicals are designed with functionality in mind. Compared to conventional materials, they have novel properties that significantly step-up performance. New digital tools are needed such as common data spaces, digital twins, industrial virtual worlds, as well as novel (autonomous) design, synthesis, development, characterisation and fabrication tools as well as continuous training of scientists on these new tools.

To secure unimpeded market entry, appropriate test methods are needed. New chemicals and materials should be developed using the SSbD framework and with the efficiency and circularity of materials in mind, also for their inclusion in products. This calls for tools, models and data for robust SSbD, including animal-free new approach methodologies and systematic life-cycle assessments. Bio-based advanced materials/chemicals and the integration and interaction of biological and artificial materials and components offer new opportunities to reduce resource dependencies and maintain sustainability.

Achieving the circularity of both raw materials and advanced materials is a key future challenge. Establishing new material flows, recovery, recycling and upcycling of materials from waste are challenges in themselves, but they also require information sharing along and across value chains and development of new business models allowing to foster innovative solutions related to technological progress, such as in materials design.

Uptake of advanced materials as well as a more efficient use of materials should be fostered in product and materials-based technology developments. This also requires new business models to be developed for the deployment of circular technologies and value chains as well as for providing product-as-a-service models, on-demand manufacturing, take-back-schemes and other service-based businesses. Strong support to SMEs is required so they can thrive in this materials ecosystem.

Business cases and exploitation strategies for industrialisation:

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

A business case and a credible initial exploitation strategy are essential components in the ultimate success of an industry-based project, as well as its prospects to attract further investments for deployment. They will both be decisive factors under the impact criterion, and proposers are encouraged to use the extended page limit to present a carefully considered business case and exploitation strategy, backed by the management of the companies involved.

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: securing the required investments, including through possible synergies with other programmes; accessing the required skills; matching value chains; enhancing product robustness; securing industrial integrators; and user acceptance.

For TRLs 6 and 7, a credible strategy to achieve future full-scale deployment in the EU is expected, indicating the intentions 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.

For topics in this destination, consortia (if selected for funding) could consider voluntary contributions in terms of data, indicators and knowledge to relevant Joint Research Centre (JRC) platforms for capitalising the knowledge developed in their projects and become more policy relevant:

• INnovation Centre for Industrial Transformation and Emissions (INCITE) (https://innovation-centre-for-industrial-transformation.ec.europa.eu/).
• The Energy and Industry Geography Lab: EIGL (https://energy-industry-geolab.jrc.ec.europa.eu/).

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.

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