EU Co-funded Partnership on raw materials for the green and digital transition (Co-funded partnership Raw Materials for the Green and Digital Transition)

Expected Outcome:Projects outcomes will enable achieving the expected impacts of the destination by increasing supply security and access to primary and secondary raw materials, in particular critical and strategic raw materials[1] for EU industrial value chains and strategic sectors.

Projects are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:

• Align national R&I priorities in raw materials with EU policy on raw materials.
• Strengthen EU cooperation with countries the EU established strategic partnerships on Raw Materials[2];
• Improve industrial viability, safety and environmental impacts of the operation in a way that leads to measurable improvements;
• Improve EU sourcing diversification of critical raw materials from third countries;
• Improve responsible supply of raw materials to Europe 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.
• Dissemination and exploitation of projects outputs is tailored for organisations and industry dealing with raw materials in the EU and project partner from Strategic partnership countries.
• Promote the utilisation of UNFC (United Nations Framework Classification for Resources) and UNRMS (United Nations Resource Management System) in the raw materials sector.
• Actions are expected to contribute to the implementation of the EU Critical Raw Materials Act[4], particularly to the 2030 benchmarks.

Scope:• The objective of the European Partnership on Raw Materials is to strengthen the co-ordination of national and regional research programmes in the field of non-energy and non-agricultural raw materials, ensuring common understanding of R&I challenges to achieve the objectives of the Critical Raw Materials Act[4].

• The Partnership will build on the experience of ERA-NETs: ERA-MIN, ERA-MIN 2 and ERA-MIN 3. The Partnership should cover the whole raw materials value chain including exploration, extraction, processing technologies, and recycling and improve circularity. Sea mining is excluded from this topic.
• Proposals should pool the necessary financial resources from the participating national (or regional) research programmes with a view to implementing joint annual calls for proposals resulting in grants to third parties with EU co-funding in this area. Financial support provided by the participants to third parties is one of the primary activities of this action in order to be able to achieve its objectives.
• As specified in the eligibility conditions, the Partnership is open to all EU Member States, associated countries to Horizon Europe, OECD countries, African Union Member States[6], MERCOSUR, CARIFORUM, Andean Community and countries with which the EU has concluded strategic partnerships on raw materials[2] as well as trade (or association/economic partnership or equivalent) agreements containing raw materials cooperation provisions (i.e. Energy and Raw materials chapters)[8]. Participation remains open to those wanting to join during the Partnership’s lifetime.
• Beneficiaries should preferably be national, regional or local institutions responsible for programming research and innovation activities in raw materials. To ensure alignment of R&I activities and raw materials policy participation is also additionally open to relevant Ministries and public institutions responsible for raw materials and R&I policy.
• This Partnership should be implemented through a joint programme of activities ranging from research to coordination and networking activities, including training, demonstration, piloting and dissemination activities, to be structured along the following main building blocks: • Joint annual calls for R&I activities;
• Facilitating further uptake and commercialisation of developed R&I results;
• Clustering of projects and synthesising of R&I results;
• Coordinating research programmes between EU and its Member States and participating third countries and trigger combined action;
• Serving as a centre for knowledge on partner countries’ R&I programmes and activities in raw materials.

• Actions should also provide measures contributing to the objectives of the Critical Raw Materials Act[9] and of EU raw materials policy.
• Partners are expected to provide financial and/or in-kind contribution, in line with the level of ambition of the proposed measures. The partnership should be open to including new partners over the lifetime of the partnership. Its governance should create a clear and transparent process for engaging with a broad range of stakeholders, together with the full members of the partnership, to ensure that the work strategically covers a wide range of views in the field of biodiversity, nature-based solutions and ecosystem services throughout the lifetime of the partnership. To ensure that all work streams are coherent and complementary, and to leverage knowledge investment potential, the partnership is expected to foster close cooperation and synergies with the projects funded under Cluster 4 Digital, Industry and Space. It should also develop synergies with other relevant European initiatives, funding programmes and platforms such as EIT Raw Materials.
• Financial support provided by the participants to third parties is one of the primary channels under this action to enable the partnership to achieve its objectives. The maximum amount to be granted to each third party is EUR 2 million. It is expected that the partnership organises joint calls on an annual base from 2026 to 2032 and therefore it should factor ample time to run the co-funded projects.
• The total indicative budget for the partnership is EUR 300 million. The EU contribution will be limited to 30% of the total eligible costs of the action with a maximum of EUR 90 million.

The starting date of grants awarded under this topic may be as of the submission date of the application. Applicants should justify the need for a retroactive starting date in their application. Costs incurred from the starting date of the action may be considered eligible.

[1] Annex 1 and Annex 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).

[2] https://single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/sectors/raw-materials/areas-specific-interest/raw-materials-diplomacy_en

[3] COM(2023) 165 - A secure and sustainable supply of critical raw materials in support of the twin transition

[4] 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).

[5] 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).

[6] African Union member states includes countries whose membership has been temporarily suspended

[7] https://single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/sectors/raw-materials/areas-specific-interest/raw-materials-diplomacy_en

[8] https://policy.trade.ec.europa.eu/eu-trade-relationships-country-and-region/negotiations-and-agreements_en

[9] 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).