EIT RawMaterials announced that a total of EUR 55,3 million has been allocated to 32 innovation and education projects aimed to contribute to Europe’s goal to become carbon-neutral by 2050.
The campaign to identify and fund Europe’s most promising innovation and education projects is well underway in a bid to rapidly increase renewable energy generation by 2030 which, according to the World Bank, will increase demand for many metals by 500 to 1,000 percent by 2050.[i] To make this change happen will require Europe to scale up its innovation prowess whereby all elements of the value chains will be digitalized, automated and electrified, placing a huge demand for new skills development.
Winning projects, led by the members of the EIT RawMaterials community, will develop breakthrough innovations and upskill talent to set new sustainability standards, to secure in a responsible way, access to critical raw materials for green technologies and reindustrialise Europe’s raw materials sector to a modern, resource-efficient, world-leading economy.
“EIT RawMaterials is leading the raw materials sector mission funding significant new projects with partners from leading industry, academia and research organisations, ensuring the highest environmental standards are met developing new disruptive technologies and processes for responsible sourcing, resource efficiency and recycling,” Bernd Schäfer, CEO and Managing Director of EIT RawMaterials.
EIT RawMaterials closed funding rounds as part of the latest Calls for Innovation & Education Projects (KAVA 9 and 10). Among the top 32 projects, the EIT RawMaterials community is working on securing access to critical raw materials for key industrial ecosystems, designing materials solutions and closing production loops to foster Europe’s transition to a green, digital and circular economy. All projects contribute to the EIT RawMaterials Lighthouses programs, which address critical and specific raw materials challenges for Europe, such as Responsible Sourcing, Sustainable Materials and Circular Societies.
Nearly 80 organisations from across Europe will bring their expertise to the newly selected projects, including 21 new members of the EIT RawMaterials community. Twenty projects have already started, and another twelve will kick off in early 2023.
The new Call for Innovation & Education Projects (KAVA 11) that was open until 26 January 2023 attracted more than 80 new proposals that are under evaluation.
List of KAVA 9 and 10 projects, with categories of activity supported & country of lead partner
Education
| ADMA3 | ADMA3 Summer/Winter School – Advanced Materials Doctoral Program with Industry | Finland |
| ALCASIM | Advanced LCA based on process and thermodynamics simulation | Finland |
| CLOCKS | CLOsing the loop: building Circular sKillS on the entire value chain | Italy |
| ELMO-LION | Educational Learning Modules on Li-ion batteries (ELMO-LION) | Finland |
| ExpSkills-REM | Expanding Knowledge and Skills in Rare Earth Permanent Magnets Value Chain | Sweden |
| MILLE | MIcrocredentials for Lifelong Learning in Engineering | Italy |
| PhD-BalticTeach | PhD Schools on Sustainable Materials for RIS region: PhD BalticTeach | Latvia |
| RawMatCop-Alliance | Alliance of RawMaterials lifecycle with Copernicus and Remote Sensing techniques | Italy |
Innovation
| CastQC | A novel cast ultra-high-specific strength quasicrystal aluminium alloy | Slovenia |
| EcoFlot | Scale-up and Demonstration of the CoarseAir Flotation Technology | Denmark |
| EUMagnesium | EU Magnesium – Sustainable Mg supply for Europe | Romania |
| FENICE | Fire rEsistant eNvironmental frIendly CompositEs | Italy |
| HiPAM | Eco-designed High Performance Alloy for AM and PM | Finland |
| HiQ-LCA | High-Quality Life Cycle Assessment for Battery Industry | Belgium |
| LiBRe | LiBRe Development of sustainable processing technologies for Lithium and Borate | Croatia |
| LYDIA | LYDIA – Recycling Critical Metals from Fuel Cells | Greece |
| New-RE | Neodymium and Rare Earth from Waste Recycling | Italy |
| PoSAddive | Powder Sheet Additive Manufacturing | Ireland |
| RareGreen | Sustainable processing methods for rare earth elements | Norway |
| ReLiFe | ReLiFe – Recycling Lithium Ferrophosphate in the RIS area | Greece |
| RMR | Raw Material Radar | Italy |
| SCIONb | Silicon Carbon Composite Production for Lithium Ion Batteries | Germany |
| SEC4TD | Securing tailings dam infrastructure with an innovative monitoring system | Spain |
| SOLSA-DEM.UP | SOLSA – DEmonstration & Market UPtake | France |
| STILLMETAL | SustaInable sLag process to obtain a valuable METAL | Italy |
| V0T3D | V0T3D: Ventilation Optimizing Technology based on 3D-scanning | Poland |
RIS Capacity Building
| GEORIS-KAVA9 | GEORIS – Innovative technologies for waste processing in ESEE Region | Greece |
| PARSIVAL | pv PAnels Recycling to create SIlicon VALue chain | Italy |
| ReLi-ion2022 | ReLi-ion: Innovation transfer & B2B collaboration on Li-ion battery recycling | Poland |
| RIS-DustRec-II | Zero waste reprocessing of EAF and CF dust with competence build-up | Slovenia |
| RISBRIEFCASE | Briefcase RIS network creation | Spain |
| WEEE-NET9 | WEEE-NET: Improving CRMs extraction capacities in RIS WEEE recycling | Slovenia |
[i] The World Bank Group, 2020, p. 93-94, Minerals for Climate Action: The Mineral Intensity of the Clean Energy Transition
