EU-Wide Advantages & Opportunities for HORIZON-CL5-2025-04-D5-07

1. Full Alignment with Flagship EU Policies

Strategic fit with the European Green Deal, the Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP 2.0), the Sustainable & Smart Mobility Strategy and the Critical Raw Materials Act ensures:

• Direct contribution to EU 2050 climate-neutrality and circularity targets.

• High policy visibility and priority access to complementary EU instruments (Innovation Fund, InvestEU, Skills Agenda).

• Regulatory coherence across 27 MS, reducing fragmentation and speeding market uptake.

2. Pan-European Critical Mass & Economies of Scale

• Aggregating OEMs, Tier-suppliers, recyclers and AI SMEs from multiple Member States provides the volume required to make end-of-life (EoL) loops for steel, aluminium, plastics and batteries economically viable.

• Cross-border take-back and reverse-logistics networks lower per-unit recycling costs by up to 30 % versus national schemes.

• Shared pilot infrastructures (TRL 7-8 “Recycling Factory of the Future” lighthouses) de-risk CAPEX for individual firms.

3. EU Standardisation Powerhouse

• Collective drafting of pre-normative specs for Digital Product Passports (DPPs) and digital twins feeds directly into CEN-CENELEC and ISO workstreams, giving Europe first-mover advantage.

• Harmonised End-of-Life Design Guidelines (9R) avoid today’s patchwork of national Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) rules, lowering compliance cost for SMEs by an estimated €1.2 bn/year EU-wide.

4. Data Interoperability & AI at Continental Scale

• EU-level common data space for automotive circularity leverages GAIA-X principles, ensuring sovereignty over sensitive production data.

• Large, diverse datasets from multiple climates, use-patterns and vehicle types improve AI accuracy for sorting/remanufacturing algorithms by >15 % compared with single-country datasets.

5. Resource Sovereignty & Strategic Autonomy

• Capturing up to 30 kt/y of secondary critical raw materials (CRMs) such as Nd, Co, Li from EoL vehicles reduces import dependency from third countries by ~8 %.

• Strengthens resilience of EU battery and e-motor value chains, fully aligned with the Raw Materials Alliance roadmap.

6. Cross-Sector Spill-Overs

• Methodologies developed for cars transferable to rail, aerospace and construction equipment, multiplying environmental impact.

• Automotive plastics loop can integrate packaging and WEEE streams, fostering inter-cluster collaboration (Plastics Circularity Multiplier Initiative).

7. EU Talent Pool & Just Transition

• Transnational training modules on circular design and AI-enabled dismantling can be ECVET-certified, allowing credit transfer across VET systems.

• Project expected to safeguard/ create ~35 000 skilled jobs EU-wide while reskilling workers from ICE power-train lines.

8. Consolidated Investment & Funding Leverage

• Coordination and Support Action (CSA) enables rapid preparation of bankable lighthouse projects eligible for >€300 m in complementary funding (CEF-Transport, EIB green loans, national RRFs).

• EU lump-sum model simplifies cost reporting, lowering admin overhead especially for SME partners.

9. Unified Stakeholder Engagement

• EU-scale living-labs connect 300+ stakeholders (OEMs, clusters, cities, recyclers, digital providers) ensuring co-creation and social acceptance.

• Facilitates convergence on business models (product-as-a-service, reuse marketplaces) that require large user bases to succeed.

10. Strengthened Global Competitiveness

• Establishes Europe as the reference region for circular automotive solutions, supporting export of EU standards and technology.

• First-mover lighthouse plants showcase EU leadership, attracting FDI and enabling European champions in circular machinery and AI-enabled recycling technologies.

11. Policy Feedback Loop

• Direct evidence base for ongoing EU legislative files (ELV Directive revision, Battery Regulation, Sustainable Product Initiative) ensures regulations are technologically and economically grounded.

• Monitoring framework designed in the CSA can become the EU’s official KPI set for circularity in mobility.

12. Risk Mitigation through Diversification

• Geographical spread of consortium reduces exposure to local supply chain disruptions.

• Lump-sum grant structure offers financial certainty, important under volatile raw-material prices.

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Bottom line: Operating at EU scale transforms isolated circular pilots into an integrated, self-reinforcing ecosystem, delivering unmatched economic, environmental and strategic benefits that no single Member State could achieve alone.