- First European dedicated funding call focused on EU Critical Raw Materials Act objectives
- Strategic focus on EU raw materials security by investing from R&D and startups to supply-side projects
- €1.5m investment ticket size for start-ups, scale-ups, and SMEs
- Dedicated call for mining, processing and recycling projects with strategic impact potential for EU, with €2.5m investment ticket size
- EIT RawMaterials is supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the EU
EIT RawMaterials has launched a new funding call strategically focused on Europe’s raw materials innovation-to-production value chain. The call provides expanded funding and tailored support to innovators, mine developers, and projects in mining, processing, and recycling across the raw materials value chain.
Bernd Schäfer, CEO, Managing Director, EIT RawMaterials, stated: “The ERMA Booster Call is a strategic initiative to reduce European reliance on imports for 80-100% of the critical raw materials essential to industrial resilience and competitiveness. The Draghi Report identified access to CRMs as Europe’s second-largest challenge to competitiveness, following energy. While policy efforts in Europe have increased focus on CRMs, financing remains a major bottleneck. With this funding call, we aim to accelerate innovation, scale up strategic mining and recycling projects, and mobilize further investment through a cross-industry public-private partnership.”
The new call expands EIT RawMaterials’ role as a unique high-impact and active investor within the European raw materials ecosystem, significantly increasing investment size for scale-ups and SMEs from €0.5m to €1.5m for qualifying innovative, high-potential projects. This expanded funding, covering early-stage innovation to Series-A companies, underscores EIT RawMaterials’ focus on promoting breakthrough innovation within Europe’s raw materials sector and helping European start-ups to successfully transition from innovation to commercialization in a sector vital to Europe’s long-term industrial competitiveness.
Building on EIT RawMaterials’ successful leadership of the European Raw Materials Alliance (ERMA) and development of a pipeline of strategic, high-potential projects, the new call will invest up to €2.5m per project into innovative extraction, processing and recycling projects with strategic potential for Europe. The investments will strategically focus on accelerating projects to achieve key development milestones and innovation adoption, supporting the EU’s strategic objectives under the Critical Raw Materials Act to diversify supply sources and increase recycling and circularity.
Notes to Editor
EIT RawMaterials invites applications across two segments:
Booster: Start-ups, Scale-Ups, and SMEs: Focused on innovation in raw and advanced materials, such as:
- Exploration, resource assessment, and mining in challenging environments
- Recycling and optimisation for end-of-life products
- Substitution of critical or toxic materials
- Circular economy solutions through product and service design
ERMA: Advanced extraction (mining), processing, and recycling projects
- Focused on projects with significant potential impact in line with EU strategic projects, including:
- Open to recognized EU Strategic Projects or approved as ERMA-supported (at the time of funding)
- Projects with the potential to expand or diversify Europe’s critical raw materials supply and incorporating innovative approaches in extraction, processing, or recycling
Funding is provided through an open application process with multiple cut-off dates throughout 2025. The final cutoff in 2025 is 8 September.
Read full details of the call here: EIT RawMaterials ERMA Booster Call Application Portal
Read EIT RawMaterials Call for European Innovation Investment here: Position on Framework Programme 10
Media Contact EIT RawMaterials
Elisabeth Ippel, Communications Manager
elisabeth.ippel@eitrawmaterials.eu
