EU-wide Advantages & Opportunities under HORIZON-CL4-INDUSTRY-2025-01-MATERIALS-61

1. Single Market Access

• Immediate entry to the world’s largest integrated market (450+ million consumers, 23 million SMEs) for secondary raw-material solutions, recycling technologies and circular business models.

• Free circulation of refurbished components and recovered materials thanks to the harmonised CE-marking and REACH/ROHS frameworks, cutting national certification costs and time-to-market by up to 30 – 40 %.

• Public-procurement leverage: projects can anticipate inclusion in Green Public Procurement (GPP) criteria under the Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA), unlocking demand from all 27 Member States’ public buyers.

2. Cross-Border Collaboration & Knowledge Exchange

• Formation of multidisciplinary consortia covering the *entire* EoL value chain (collectors, logistics, AI-sorters, metallurgists, OEMs, standardisation bodies) across several MS/Associated Countries, enabling pilots at the scale required for TRL 6-7.

• Access to pan-European testbeds such as EIT RawMaterials demo sites, the European Battery Innovation pilot lines and the European Research Infrastructure for Circular Raw Materials (ECRIN-RM), lowering CapEx for prototype validation.

• Cross-project clustering mandated by the call: coordinated work packages allow sharing sensor datasets, material passports and LCA tools with parallel Horizon projects (e.g., on second-life batteries), accelerating replication.

3. Alignment with EU Policies & Legislative Drivers

• Direct contribution to the CRMA recovery target of ≥15 % of EU annual consumption of each strategic raw material from recycling by 2030.

• Supports key pillars of the European Green Deal (Circular Economy Action Plan, Zero Pollution Ambition) and the *Digital Europe Programme* (through digital twins and traceability).

• Facilitates compliance with upcoming End-of-Life regulations (Battery Regulation, WEEE Directive recast, ELV Directive revision), making consortium members ‘first movers’ and policy shapers.

4. Regulatory Harmonisation & Pre-Compliance Advantages

• One-stop compliance with EU-wide standards (EN 45558/45559 for material efficiency; CEN/CLC recycling standards), avoiding fragmented national rules.

• Early engagement with CEN/CENELEC Technical Committees through the project’s standardisation task can shorten standard-setting cycles, positioning partners as reference experts.

5. Leveraging the EU Innovation Ecosystem

• Preferential access to Europe’s Key Digital and Advanced Manufacturing hubs (EEN, EDIHs) for AI-driven sorting, robotics and process control.

• Collaboration opportunities with 300+ partners in EIT RawMaterials KIC and the Circular Plastics Alliance for complementary skills, talent and investor networks.

• Eligibility for Erasmus+ funded doctoral networks and ESF+ re-skilling vouchers, ensuring the skilled workforce needed for scale-up.

6. Funding Synergies & Financial Leveraging

• Possibility to blend Horizon funding (70 % for IA) with:

- Innovation Fund (large‐scale pilots ≥ €7.5 M) for CO₂-neutral metallurgical processing.

- LIFE Programme for environmental permits and up-scaling of waste-stream logistics.

- Cohesion Policy Funds/Just Transition Fund for regional deployment of pilots in coal/transitional regions.

- InvestEU/European Circular Bioeconomy Fund for post-project equity financing.

• Cumulative financing can raise total available budget from ~€15 M Horizon grant to €30-40 M, de-risking industrial demonstration.

7. Scalability & Pan-European Impact

• Harmonised digital product passport (DPP) architecture across WEEE, batteries and PV modules allows EU-wide tracing of critical raw materials, enabling closed-loop supply chains.

• Geo-diverse pilot plants (e.g., Nordic hydrometallurgical site, Iberian pyrometallurgical hub, CEE robotics-enabled dismantling centre) foster regional specialisation and resilience.

• Estimated impact: additional 20-40 kt/year of recycled REEs, Li, Co, Ni and high-performance alloys within five years post-project, cutting EU import dependency by 4-6 % for targeted materials.

8. Strategic Competitive Positioning – Beyond the EU

• Compliance with EU sustainability benchmarks positions consortium technologies for global export as many jurisdictions align with EU circularity rules (e.g., UK, Canada, South Korea).

• Shared IP and licensing models developed under a single EU framework simplify penetration of third-country markets covered by EU trade agreements that include raw-materials cooperation clauses.

9. Actionable Recommendations for Applicants

1. Map partners across at least 7-8 Member/Associated States to maximise geographic complementarity and eligibility points under ‘excellence of consortium’.

2. Secure letters of intent from regional clusters (e.g., Cluster ADRRESS, Batteries Europe, WindEurope) to strengthen exploitation strategy and GPP uptake.

3. Allocate a minimum of 8-10 % of the budget to standardisation, clustering and policy-liaison tasks to fully capture EU-wide leverage.

4. Engage early with EIB’s Advisory Hub to prepare a bankable business case that fits InvestEU’s circular-economy window.

*In summary*, operating at EU level multiplies market reach, regulatory certainty, funding leverage and innovation capacity far beyond what is feasible at national scale, making the Horizon IA call a unique springboard for technologies that can secure Europe’s strategic autonomy in critical raw materials.