Europe strengthens its capabilities through circular advanced materials
IPCEI Circular
Advanced Materials
Are you planning an innovative development in the field of Circular Advanced Materials? The IPCEI Circular Advanced Materials call may provide an opportunity to take your project from research and development to first industrial deployment through European cooperation.
Megnézem nekem szól-eIPCEI Circular Advanced Materials
Europe strengthens its industrial competitiveness through circular advanced materials
Circular Advanced Materials (CAM) are playing an increasingly important role in Europe’s industrial and technological competitiveness. From batteries and energy storage systems to semiconductors, electronic components, lightweight solutions and renewable energy technologies, the development of numerous strategic sectors depends on the properties, sustainability and sources of the materials available to European industry.
The challenge, however, is no longer simply to develop higher-performance materials. For a new material to remain competitive over the long term, it needs to form part of a more sustainable and resilient industrial system throughout its entire lifecycle – from sourcing and manufacturing through use to reuse, recycling or material recovery. Circularity is therefore becoming less of a separate environmental consideration and increasingly a fundamental requirement of technological design.
The IPCEI Circular Advanced Materials (IPCEI CAM) aims to support the development of an integrated European value chain in which advanced materials innovation and circular economy requirements are interconnected from the very beginning of the development process. The initiative may particularly target technologically intensive projects that create new materials, manufacturing and processing solutions, recycling technologies, or systems that improve material lifetimes and reusability.
As in other cases, the IPCEI is not a conventional investment support programme. Its objective is not to finance isolated corporate projects, but to create a cross-border, strategically important European Circular Advanced Materials value chain made up of interconnected national projects.
Why is a dedicated IPCEI needed for Circular Advanced Materials?
The development of Europe’s advanced materials industry is being slowed by several technological and economic bottlenecks at the same time. One of the most important challenges is the high external dependence on critical and strategic raw materials. The sourcing of many raw materials and intermediate products required for the energy transition, electromobility and modern electronic systems is tied to highly concentrated global value chains. This is not only a matter of security of supply: it can directly affect the cost base, development opportunities and technological autonomy of European industry.
This challenge is compounded by the significant cost of researching and industrialising advanced materials. A new material that shows promise in laboratory conditions does not automatically become a competitive industrial product. Reproducible manufacturing, consistent quality, access to suitable raw materials, energy- and material-efficient processing, industrial integration and, in many cases, recyclability all need to be addressed. Scaling up the technology can therefore represent a major R&D&I challenge in its own right.
The problem is further intensified by the lengthy time-to-market, meaning the period between the first research results and actual industrial application. At this intermediate stage, development costs can already be extremely high while the prospect of commercial returns remains uncertain. This is the classic “valley of death”, where many technologies fail to progress despite having significant technical potential.
The IPCEI CAM is designed to address precisely this gap: it may support projects that have moved beyond early-stage research but still face significant validation, demonstration, industrialisation and first market deployment risks. The aim is to ensure that Europe not only conducts research into advanced materials but also builds a strong position in their industrial application, circular use and technological exploitation.
What could the IPCEI CAM mean for companies?
The IPCEI Circular Advanced Materials initiative covers an exceptionally broad technological field. Potential projects may span the entire lifecycle of materials, from the sourcing of sustainable inputs and material design through production, processing and use to end-of-life treatment and the reintegration of materials into industrial circular value chains.
Relevant developments could include, for example, the creation of new or significantly improved materials that require fewer critical inputs, or in which certain strategic raw materials can be substituted with alternative materials. Solutions enabling a higher proportion of secondary raw materials to be used may also be relevant, as may technologies capable of recovering valuable components from complex or previously difficult-to-recycle material streams.
On the manufacturing side, key development areas may include reducing material and energy intensity, minimising scrap and process losses, recirculating by-products, or developing new processing methods capable of delivering a high level of circularity at industrial scale.
During the use phase, improving durability, repairability, refurbishability and disassembly may become particularly important. A project can become truly systemic when it does not optimise just one technological point, but instead connects material design, manufacturing, use and recirculation within a functioning circular industrial model.
Where is the boundary between a conventional materials-industry investment and an IPCEI project?
Not every investment related to circularity or advanced materials can be considered a potential IPCEI project. Purchasing a more efficient but already widely used production line, or increasing the capacity of a proven recycling technology, may be an important corporate investment, but on its own it may not necessarily meet the innovation requirements of an IPCEI.
| Conventional materials-industry investment | Potential IPCEI CAM project |
|---|---|
| Use of already proven technology | New or significantly improved technology |
| Primarily capacity expansion | R&D, demonstration and industrial breakthrough |
| Integration of commercially available equipment | Development of a new material, process or industrial system |
| Lower technological risk | High R&D and industrialisation risk |
| Internal optimisation within a single company | Development linked to a European value chain |
| Direct return for the company | Broader European technological and economic impact |
The key question is therefore not whether a project is “green” or whether it includes a recycling element. What matters much more is whether it creates new technological knowledge or capabilities that are not yet available in routine industrial operation, and whether implementing them at industrial scale involves significant technical or financial risk.
An IPCEI Circular Advanced Materials project should also ideally connect to a broader European value chain. The objective is not to create an isolated factory, but to link developments that together can reduce Europe’s strategic dependencies and strengthen its technological autonomy.
The three key focus areas of the call
The technological logic of the IPCEI Circular Advanced Materials initiative covers the full lifecycle of materials. Based on the current planning, developments offering particularly relevant project opportunities for companies can be grouped into three major areas.
Sustainable sourcing and circular design of advanced materials
The first focus area addresses the very beginning of the value chain. It may include technologies that contribute to more sustainable inputs, more secure European raw material supplies or reduced dependence on critical raw materials.
Development may involve the introduction of new material sources, higher-quality use of secondary raw materials, substitution of critical components, or the creation of new pre-treatment and purification processes. After all, a material does not become advanced simply because it demonstrates exceptional performance under laboratory conditions. From an industrial perspective, it is equally important that the inputs required to produce it are reliably and sustainably available.
Another key element of this area is eco-design and materials innovation. This may involve the development of new materials, formulations, structures or material architectures in which performance, manufacturability and circularity requirements are considered together from the outset.
This matters because many problems are already too difficult to solve once a product reaches the end of its lifecycle. If, for example, a composite material is designed so that its constituents cannot later be separated economically, recycling may become difficult from both a technological and financial perspective. If disassembly, material identification or recoverability are incorporated into the development process from the start, however, circularity becomes not an afterthought or compromise but an integrated technological property.
Circular production, processing and end-of-life treatment
The second focus area concentrates on the industrial production and recirculation of advanced materials. The objective is not simply to make minor improvements to an existing manufacturing process, but to introduce a technological change capable of materially improving resource efficiency and circularity.
This may include significantly reducing energy or raw material requirements, recirculating production by-products and scrap, creating more closed-loop industrial processes, or developing new manufacturing technologies. Relevant projects may also explore how an entire component, structure or particular high-value subcomponents can be reused.
Recycling, material recovery and end-of-life treatment may represent another key area. Developments capable of recovering high-quality raw materials from complex or currently difficult-to-process material streams could be particularly valuable. The real technological challenge is often not whether a material is theoretically recyclable, but whether recycling can be carried out at large scale, with sufficient purity, consistent quality and economic viability.
From the perspective of the IPCEI Circular Advanced Materials initiative, projects may be particularly relevant where material recovered at the end of its lifecycle is not diverted into a lower-value application but can instead be reintroduced into high-value industrial use. This can create genuinely closed or near-closed material loops.
Circularity during the use and optimisation phase
A common misconception about the circular economy is that it is primarily about recycling. In reality, the longer a material, component or product can remain in high-performance use, the longer its replacement or material recycling can be postponed.
The IPCEI Circular Advanced Materials initiative may therefore also cover circularity during the use phase. This may include developments that extend the useful life of materials, improve durability, or make maintenance, repair, disassembly and reuse easier.
In a mobility application, for example, a lightweight, high-performance material may create significant value not only by reducing weight but also by offering a longer service life or easier repairability. In electronics, disassembly and access to valuable materials may be critical, while in energy systems slowing material degradation and extending the useful lifetime of equipment can offer strategic benefits.
The key concept is lifecycle optimisation. A CAM project does not necessarily have to develop only a new material; it may also create monitoring, diagnostic or material-design solutions that enable a given material or component to remain safely in use for longer.
Energy, mobility and electronics
Circular Advanced Materials is a horizontal technological field, meaning that the results created within it can be applied across numerous industries. In the current European initiative, however, three areas of application are particularly prominent: energy, mobility and electronics.
In the energy sector, advanced materials can play a decisive role in the conversion, storage, transmission and distribution of renewable and low-carbon energy. The development of energy storage systems, grid technologies and renewable fuels may all require material innovations in which resource efficiency and recyclability become increasingly important alongside performance.
In mobility, in addition to energy storage and alternative fuels, lightweight, high-performance and durable materials may take centre stage. Lower weight can improve energy efficiency, while new coatings, composites or structural materials may extend the lifetime of vehicles and infrastructure.
In the electronics industry, material use and end-of-life recovery are becoming increasingly important alongside performance and energy efficiency. Advanced chips, semiconductors and packaging technologies rely on complex material systems, and making these systems more circular represents a major technological challenge in its own right.
What these three fields have in common is that they are strategically important, technologically fast-moving and highly material-intensive industries. As a result, CAM developments implemented in these sectors can have an impact far beyond the competitiveness of a single company or product.
Why may state aid be necessary?
Innovation related to advanced materials can be research-intensive, capital-intensive and high-risk at the same time. Companies may need to invest significant amounts in material development, testing, pilot systems and industrial demonstration without any guarantee of either technical success or subsequent market acceptance of the new technology.
The situation may be particularly challenging when a company is trying to establish an entirely new value chain in order to achieve circularity. An innovative material recovery technology may work successfully, for example, while the necessary collection, pre-treatment or reuse infrastructure may not yet exist at an appropriate industrial scale.
IPCEI support may therefore be justified where a project has high strategic importance and a significant positive European impact, but private-market returns alone are insufficient to enable the desired level of technological ambition to be realised.
A key element in demonstrating this is the funding gap analysis. In essence, this analysis examines what type of project the company would implement without support and, compared with that scenario, how much support is required for the IPCEI project involving higher levels of innovation and technological risk to go ahead.
In every case, support must be necessary, proportionate and provide an appropriate incentive effect. An IPCEI therefore does not support a project simply because it is expensive to implement, but because the higher level of technological ambition would not be achieved without support, or would not be achieved in the same form.
How could an IPCEI Circular Advanced Materials project be structured?
Participation in an IPCEI involves several interconnected national and European stages. The specific procedure may depend on the details of the national scheme and the relevant European initiative, but the process generally follows the logic below:
- National call for expressions of interest and project identification
- Assessment of the project’s innovation and strategic relevance
- National evaluation and preliminary selection
- European matchmaking and partner search
- Development of the integrated European value chain and links between projects
- Detailed preparation of technological, financial and spillover documentation
- Demonstration of the funding gap and incentive effect
- European Commission State aid assessment
- Approval and finalisation of the national support scheme
Companies therefore need to consider significantly more than which machine, pilot line or research programme they would like to finance, even at an early stage of the process.
The technological novelty, development risks, European interconnections, role of first industrial deployment, expected spillovers, and the reasons why the project could not be implemented with the same technological content without support all need to be clearly defined.
What could this mean for companies in Hungary?
Hungary has significant manufacturing and R&D capacities in several industrial sectors that could provide natural entry points into European Circular Advanced Materials value chains.
The automotive and battery industries, electronics manufacturing, the chemical industry, materials science research, metal and plastics processing, and energy technologies are all areas where relevant development opportunities may be identified. The opportunity, however, is not limited to large companies. Innovative technology SMEs, universities, research institutes, testing laboratories and specialised suppliers may also play important roles within an integrated project.
A Hungarian company could, for example, develop a new lightweight or more durable material for the mobility sector, a new process for recovering valuable materials, a technology enabling the high-quality use of secondary raw materials, or a manufacturing system that significantly reduces material losses.
The real IPCEI potential emerges, however, when such a development can also be incorporated into a broader European technology story. In other words, it should be possible to identify which other European developments the Hungarian project builds upon, to whom it transfers new technology or materials, and how it contributes to creating a value chain that does not yet operate at sufficient industrial scale.
The benefits of participating in an IPCEI therefore extend beyond funding alone. A well-positioned Hungarian project can become part of European corporate and R&D networks that may open up new technological partnerships, supplier relationships and markets over the longer term.
When is it worth considering an IPCEI Circular Advanced Materials project?
The IPCEI Circular Advanced Materials initiative may be particularly relevant for a company where the planned development goes substantially beyond a conventional investment or efficiency-improvement project.
It may be particularly worthwhile exploring the IPCEI opportunity if the project:
- creates a new or significantly improved material, manufacturing or recycling technology;
- involves substantial R&D or industrialisation risk;
- enables more sustainable use of raw materials or reduces dependence on critical inputs;
- integrates circularity into the design of the material or product from the outset;
- improves reusability, repairability, disassembly or recyclability;
- offers a new technological solution for recovering complex material streams;
- can be linked with projects by other European companies or research organisations;
- creates a European spillover effect extending beyond the company’s own commercial interests;
- would not be implemented without support, or would be implemented with lower technological ambition or significantly later.
The IPCEI Circular Advanced Materials initiative may therefore represent a strategic opportunity particularly for companies that do not simply want to adapt to the requirements of the circular economy, but aim to actively participate in shaping Europe’s next generation of materials and circular industrial value chains.
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