EIT RawMaterials has launched a new funding call strategically focused on Europe’s raw materials innovation-to-production value chain. The call provides expanded funding and tailored support to innovators, mine developers, and projects in mining, processing, and recycling across the raw materials value chain.
“The ERMA Booster Call is a strategic initiative to reduce European reliance on imports for 80-100% of the critical raw materials essential to industrial resilience and competitiveness. The Draghi Report identified access to CRMs as Europe’s second-largest challenge to competitiveness, following energy. While policy efforts in Europe have increased focus on CRMs, financing remains a major bottleneck. With this funding call, we aim to accelerate innovation, scale up strategic mining and recycling projects, and mobilize further investment through a cross-industry public-private partnership,” stated Bernd Schäfer, CEO, Managing Director, EIT RawMaterials.
The new call expands EIT RawMaterials’ role as a unique high-impact and active investor within the European raw materials ecosystem, significantly increasing investment size for scale-ups and SMEs from €0.5m to €1.5m for qualifying innovative, high-potential projects. This expanded funding, covering early-stage innovation to Series-A companies, underscores EIT RawMaterials’ focus on promoting breakthrough innovation within Europe’s raw materials sector and helping European start-ups to successfully transition from innovation to commercialization in a sector vital to Europe’s long-term industrial competitiveness.
Building on EIT RawMaterials’ successful leadership of the European Raw Materials Alliance (ERMA) and development of a pipeline of strategic, high-potential projects, the new call will invest up to €2.5m per project into innovative extraction, processing and recycling projects with strategic potential for Europe. The investments will strategically focus on accelerating projects to achieve key development milestones and innovation adoption, supporting the EU’s strategic objectives under the Critical Raw Materials Act to diversify supply sources and increase recycling and circularity.
