European Innovation Partnership on Raw Materials

Introduction

The European Innovation Partnerships (EIPs) are a new approach to EU research and innovation. They focus on the societal benefits of R + I and a rapid modernisation of the associated sectors and markets.

European Innovation Partnerships (EIP) were launched under the European Commission's Innovation Union to accelerate the market take-up of innovations which address key challenges for Europe.

The EIP on Raw Materials brings together EU Member States and other key stakeholders - such as European companies, European researchers, and European NGOs.- to promote innovation along the entire value chain of raw materials. It does this by supporting technologies, improving the framework policy conditions for raw materials, and by promoting international cooperation.

European innovation partnership on raw materials

The supply of raw materials, the lifeblood of today's high-tech industry, is increasingly under pressure. With a view to increasing the availability of raw materials for Europe, the European Commission has proposed to set up a European Innovation Partnership on raw materials.

Innovation can be a powerful vehicle in meeting Europe's challenges in the field of raw materials. For example, new technologies can help to extract deeper, in more remote areas and under harsh conditions.

The EIP on Raw Materials has a number of specific objectives: to reduce the EU's dependency on imports of raw materials; to promote production and exports both by improving supply conditions from within and outside the EU, and by providing resource efficiency and alternatives in supply; and to bring Europe to the forefront in the raw materials sector, whilst also mitigating the sector’s negative environmental, social and health impacts. The ultimate aim of the EIP on Raw Materials is to help raise industry's contribution to the EU GDP to around 20% by 2020. It will also play an important role in meeting the objectives of the flagship European Commission initiatives ‘Innovation Union’ and ‘Resource Efficient Europe’. It will do this by ensuring the sustainable supply of raw materials to the European economy whilst increasing benefits for society as a whole.Action is also needed to develop substitutes for critical raw materials and to improve recycling of, among others, the 17 kg electric and electronic equipment waste that each EU citizen produces annually today.

Strategic Implementation Plan (SIP)

The Strategic Implementation Plan (SIP) of the European Innovation Partnership on Raw Materials was adopted by the High Level Steering Group (HLSG) of the EIP on 25 September 2013 in Brussels. The full SIP can be found below. Part I presents the objectives, targets and methodology of the EIP and defines the overall strategy, whilst Part II details Priority Areas, Action Areas and Actions targeting sector specific stakeholders and practitioners.

Targets

A number of concrete targets should be achieved by the EIP by 2020, as indicated in the Strategic Implementation Plan (SIP) of the EIP on Raw Materials. These targets include:

Up to ten innovative pilot actions on exploration, mining, processing, and recycling for the innovative production of raw materials;
Substitutes for at least three applications of critical and scarce raw materials;
Framework conditions for primary raw materials that would provide a stable and competitive supply from EU sources and facilitate its public acceptance;
Framework conditions for enhanced efficiency in material use and in waste prevention, re-use and recycling, and raw materials-efficient product design;
European raw materials knowledge base with information, flows and a dynamic modelling system for primary and secondary raw materials;
Network of Research, Education and Training Centres on sustainable raw materials management, organised as a Knowledge and Innovation Community;
Pro-active international co-operation strategy of the EU at bilateral and multilateral level, promoting synergies with countries such as the US, Japan, Australia, Canada, Latin America and the African Union across the different areas covered by the EIP.