Technologies for critical raw materials and strategic raw materials from end-of-life products (IA) -

The projects’ outcomes will enable the expected impacts of the destination by increasing supply security and access to secondary raw materials, in particular critical and strategic raw materials for EU[1] industrial value chains and strategic sectors which will alleviate critical raw materials dependency.

Projects are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:

• Increased recovery rate of critical and strategic raw materials as set out in the Critical Raw Materials Act[2] through developing raw materials recycling and re-use of components and/or products from end-of-life (EoL) products, including recovery of raw material by-products.
• Improved competitiveness of secondary raw materials production by enhancing cost effectiveness.
• Improved efficiency of technologies for separation and recycling and the sustainable embedment of the process in terms of energy, resource and water use, waste and emissions (including Green House Gases and air pollutants) footprint.
• Improved responsible supply of raw materials to Europe from EoL streams in line with the EU principles for sustainable raw materials,[3] which are a non-regulatory set of principles based on the EU acquis. They set out requirements for sustainable raw materials and extraction and processing in Europe in terms of social, environmental and economic performance.
• Actions are expected to contribute to the implementation of the EU Critical Raw Materials Act[4].

• Actions should develop material efficient high-quality re-use and recycling of one or more of the following end-of-life product categories/key waste streams: waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), waste batteries, end-of-life vehicles, waste wind turbines, waste solar photovoltaics, waste heat pumps, waste electrolysers and machine tools made from high-performance alloys.
• Actions should focus on the whole chain of re-using and recycling processes and procedures – from collection, logistics, characterisation, sorting, cleaning, refining and purification of secondary raw materials and quality of produced outputs.
• Actions should focus on functional re-use and recycling. Recycling where the recycled material is of lower functionality than the original material (downcycling) is to be avoided.
• Actions should envisage clustering activities with other projects aiming at recycling, second life, re-use, repurposing, remanufacturing of products and/or components relevant selected projects for cross-projects co-operation, consultations and joint activities on cross-cutting issues and share of results as well as participating in joint meetings and communication events. To this end proposals should foresee a dedicated work package and/or task, and earmark the appropriate resources accordingly.
• Actions should facilitate the market uptake of solutions developed through industrially- and user-driven multidisciplinary consortia covering the relevant value chain and should consider standardisation aspects when relevant. The action should also include the analysis of financial opportunities ensuring the market exploitation and replication of the circular business model behind the developed solutions as new processes, products and/or services.

Proposals submitted under this topic should include a business case and exploitation strategy, as outlined in the introduction to this Destination.

In this topic the integration of the gender dimension (sex and/or gender analysis) in research and innovation content is not a mandatory requirement, however, should you consider it to be of relevance for your specific proposal, you are strongly encouraged to do it.

[1] Annex I and II, Regulation (EU) 2024/1252 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 April 2024 establishing a framework for ensuring a secure and sustainable supply of critical raw materials and amending Regulations (EU) No 168/2013, (EU) 2018/858, (EU) 2018/1724 and (EU) 2019/1020 (OJ L, 2024/1252, 3.5.2024, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1252/oj).

[2] Regulation (EU) 2024/1252 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 April 2024 establishing a framework for ensuring a secure and sustainable supply of critical raw materials and amending Regulations (EU) No 168/2013, (EU) 2018/858, (EU) 2018/1724 and (EU) 2019/1020 (OJ L, 2024/1252, 3.5.2024, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1252/oj).

[3] European Commission. Directorate General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs. (2021). EU principles for sustainable raw materials. Publications Office. https://doi.org/10.2873/12856

[4] To be updated after publication in the Official Journal

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