EU-Wide Advantages and Opportunities for the Call “Innovative solutions for the sustainable production for Semiconductor raw materials (IA)”

1. Single Market Access

• Barrier-free commercialisation: Successful solutions can be placed on the EU Single Market without customs or regulatory frictions, giving immediate access to >450 million consumers as well as >23 000 semiconductor-using firms.

• Pan-European supply security: Producing, processing and recycling critical semiconductor raw materials inside the EU shortens supply chains, reduces import-related risk and complies automatically with the Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) “10/15/20” benchmarks.

• Strategic public procurement: Once qualified, project outputs can tap into large EU-level and national green & digital transition procurement budgets (e.g. Connecting Europe Facility, Digital Europe, IPCEI on Micro-electronics).

2. Cross-Border Collaboration & Knowledge Exchange

• Mandatory multi-country consortia under Horizon Europe facilitate direct collaboration between mines, refiners, chemical suppliers, equipment manufacturers, fabs and recyclers located in different Member States.

• Complementary assets: Northern European mining & refining expertise (SE, FI, EL, PT) pairs with Central European chemical/process clusters (DE, NL, BE) and advanced packaging know-how (FR, IT, IE).

• Mobility programmes (MSCA, EIT RM, Erasmus+) can be plugged in to train a cross-border workforce competent in SSbD and advanced process control.

• Clustering obligation opens doors to existing EU platforms such as:

• European Raw Materials Alliance (ERMA)

• Industrial Alliance on Processors & Semiconductor Technologies

• European Innovation Hub for Advanced Materials (Advanced Materials 2030 Initiative)

3. Alignment with Core EU Policies

| EU Policy | Direct Contribution of the Call |

|---|---|

| European Green Deal & Fit-for-55 | Lower GHG footprint through low-carbon hydrometallurgy, renewable energy integration and closed-loop water management.

| EU Chips Act | Secures upstream feedstock for the 20 % global chip manufacturing target by 2030.

| Critical Raw Materials Act | Delivers new domestic sourcing, processing and recycling capacities, helping to meet the 10 % extraction, 40 % processing and 25 % recycling targets.

| Digital Europe & AI Act | Opens data-sharing spaces for ore body modelling, predictive maintenance and digital twins of processing plants.

| Circular Economy Action Plan | Moves materials from linear to circular flows—mandatory business case must show >95 % recovery or reuse of reagents/solvents.

4. Regulatory Harmonisation Benefits

• One-stop conformity: Compliance with EU REACH, SSbD and Eco-design rules automatically covers 27 Member States, removing the cost of adapting processes to diverging national frameworks.

• Standardisation leverage: Participation in CEN/CENELEC and ETSI working groups allows consortia to shape future EU standards for semiconductor-grade gallium, indium et al., locking in a first-mover advantage.

• Accelerated authorisations: Projects that demonstrate alignment with Best Available Techniques (BAT) under the Industrial Emissions Directive may benefit from fast-track permitting pilots promoted by the CRMA.

5. Access to Europe’s Innovation Ecosystem

• World-class RTOs & universities: IMEC, Fraunhofer, CEA-Leti, SINTEF, VTT, KTH, TU Delft and others provide pilot lines, characterisation labs and SSbD screening services.

• Digital infrastructures: EuroHPC JU supercomputers enable high-throughput simulations (e.g. solvent extraction thermodynamics, crystal defect modelling).

• Open data & testbeds: Access to Materials Cloud, OpenEarthMonitor, and the JRC’s INCITE & EIGL platforms for data validation and policy uptake.

6. Funding Synergies & Leverage

1. Cascade funding & Seal of Excellence: High-quality but unfunded proposals may receive national/regional ERDF/REACT-EU top-ups.

2. Blended finance: European Investment Bank (EIB) thematic window for CRMA projects offers debt/equity to scale-up TRL 8-9 plants.

3. IPCEI on Micro-electronics & Digital Tech II: Grants/loans for first-industrial deployment (>€8 bn budget) can take over after project completion.

4. Innovation Fund: Large-scale decarbonisation projects (e.g. electrified smelters) can combine CO₂-based revenues with Horizon grants.

5. European Raw Materials Fund (planned): Equity co-investment in mines and refineries.

7. Scale and EU-Wide Impact Potential

• Economic: Up to €3–5 bn import substitution for Ga, Ge, In, Si, etc.; creation/reshoring of ~12 000 high-skill jobs across mining regions and semiconductor clusters.

• Environmental: ≥30 % energy saving, ≥50 % process water reuse and >95 % lower direct waste via in-line valorisation of by-products (Sb, Te, Se).

• Social: Demonstrates transparent, ESG-compliant extraction/refining, improving public acceptance of domestic mining.

• Strategic: Diversifies raw material supply away from single-supplier risk (e.g. Ga/In from CN), increasing EU open strategic autonomy.

8. Unique EU-Level Advantages over National Schemes

1. Critical mass: Only an EU-wide call can aggregate sufficient ore volumes, pilot lines and end-users to reach TRL 7 demonstrators for multiple elements simultaneously.

2. Diversified risk & IP co-ownership: Sharing CAPEX/technical risk across countries eases corporate boards’ investment decisions and enables joint IP portfolios.

3. Policy voice: Consortium outputs can feed directly into EU secondary legislation (delegated acts under CRMA, Chips Act emergency toolbox).

4. Pan-EU visibility: Horizon branding increases credibility with global off-takers and investors compared to isolated national pilots.

9. Actionable Opportunities for Applicants

• Combine extraction & recycling: Propose integrated flowsheets that treat both European ores (e.g. Finnish tellurium-bearing copper concentrates) and post-consumer waste (e.g. photovoltaic panels for Si, Te, In).

• Leverage renewable energy: Site pilot hydrometallurgical plants next to EU RES hotspots (PT solar, SE hydro) to maximise Green Deal impact scores.

• Digital twins & AI: Embed real-time digital twins linked to GAIA-X compliant data spaces to meet Digital Europe synergies.

• Standardisation WP: Allocate budget to lead a CEN workshop agreement on “Semiconductor-grade critical raw material specifications”.

• Public engagement: Partner with science centres/NGOs in at least three Member States to meet the awareness-raising requirement.

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These advantages demonstrate that operating at EU scale through Horizon-IA not only unlocks higher technological ambition and risk-sharing, but also ensures rapid, harmonised market access, policy relevance and long-term strategic impact across Europe’s entire semiconductor value chain.