Innovative advanced materials and new production processes – reducing dependencies on Critical and Strategic Raw Materials (IA) (Innovative Advanced Materials for the EU and Processes4Planet partnerships)
Horizon Europe · Grant topic
Summary
A Polish company can use this call for R&D.
Funds innovative materials and production processes that replace critical raw materials or improve their efficient use in industrial value chains.
- Who can apply
- Companies can lead: SME, large company, startup, research org, university.
- Amount
- €6M – €7.5M per projectTotal budget €36,000,000
- Deadline
- 02 Feb 2027 01:00 CETin 101 days
- Status
- Openopened 13 Oct 2026
Machine-classified from the call text; check eligibility at the source.
Description
Expected Outcome:
• Reducing dependencies of critical and strategic raw materials through partial or total substitution by safe and sustainable innovative advanced materials and/or via more efficient use of critical and strategic raw materials in production processes;
• Speeding up the innovation cycle within value chain(s) important for European industry;
• Enhancing competitiveness of the industries and operational costs, while making supply chains more secure;
• New or improved production processes, innovative advanced materials and products that are safer and more sustainable, supporting a clean and autonomous economy; and
• Demonstrating how the safe and sustainable by design (SSbD) chemicals and materials framework can guide innovation.
Scope:
The focus of this topic is on alternatives for the substitution or more efficient use of critical and strategic raw materials[1]. The design and development of innovative advanced materials (IAMs) and processes should lead to an innovation cycle covering the (re)design of materials and production processes, and the integration of IAMs into products.
Proposals should develop IAMs or process technologies to replace or reduce the use of critical and strategic raw materials in strategic areas and sectors such as energy, mobility, construction, electronics, medical devices or chemical industries.
Proposals should address one or several of the following approaches:
• Design, development and production with targets on performance, safety and sustainability of IAMs substituting or making a more efficient use of critical and strategic raw materials.
• Innovative industrial processes for the reduction of the use of critical and strategic raw materials focussed on optimizing process safety, sustainability, flexibility, scalability, cost-efficiency.
• Co-development strategies for IAMs and industrial processes. These strategies should demonstrate the value of co-development through specific use cases while maintaining broad relevance across various materials and process types.
Proposals should demonstrate clear use case(s), market and potential to grow. The substitution barriers for the selected applications should be identified and a driving mechanism for a maximal substitution in the targeted value chains proposed.
The scope includes necessary adaptations of related processes and technologies to ensure alignment with and integration in industrial manufacturing in order to facilitate the uptake of the developed solutions. If relevant, challenges for the adaption of existing production lines should be identified and solutions proposed.
Proposals should demonstrate that SSbD framework[2] will be applied throughout the innovation process, showing that safety and sustainability principles are actively integrated and influence decision-making in a transparent and traceable way, and ensure that the data generated within the proposal may be shared with the Common Data Platform for Chemicals. The new alternatives to be developed should meet the technical functions required in the specific applications while aligning their innovation process decision making with such framework.
Proposals should include a business case and exploitation strategy, as outlined in the introduction to this Destination.
Proposals are encouraged to cooperate with relevant projects. Where relevant, proposals should actively contribute to and cooperate with the EU Innovation and Substitution Hub(s)[3]. Proposals should allocate the necessary resources to the proposed activities
This topic implements the co-programmed European partnerships Innovative Advanced Materials for the EU (IAM4EU) and Processes4Planet.
Technology Readiness Level - Technology readiness level expected from completed projects
Activities are expected to start at TRL 5 and achieve TRL 7 by the end of the project – see General Annex B.
[1] https://rmis.jrc.ec.europa.eu/eu-critical-raw-materials; as well as Annex I and II of the
[2] See documents defining the SSbD framework on: https://ec.europa.eu/info/research-and-innovation/research-area/industrial-research-and-innovation/key-enabling-technologies/advanced-materials-and-chemicals_en
[3] European Chemicals Industry Action Plan - European Commission
Who can apply, in detail
- Applicant types
- SME, Large company, Startup, Research org, University
- Purpose
- Research and innovation
- R&D relevance
- 3 of 3
- Poland eligible
- Yes
- Country limit
- EU Member States, associated countries, OECD countries, African Union Member States, MERCOSUR, CARIFORUM, Andean Community and further countries specified by the topic.
- Region
- Any
- Consortium
- Unclear
- Readiness level (TRL)
- —
- Topics
- Critical raw material substitution
- Strategic raw materials
- Advanced materials
- Efficient production processes
- Safe and sustainable design
Machine-classified from the call text; check eligibility at the source. 23 Oct 2026
Conditions
Typed facts extracted from the source documents by Scindu's grant-data review. Each value keeps its own conditions. Unknown means unstated, not zero or unlimited.
- Applicant restriction
- participation in this topic is limited to legal entities established in Member States, associated countries, OECD countries, African Union Member States, MERCOSUR, CARIFORUM, Andean Community and countries with which the EU has concluded strategic partnerships on raw materials as well as trade agreements (or association/economic partnership or equivalent agreements, including the new Clean Trade and Investment Partnerships) containing raw materials cooperation provisions (i.e. Energy and Raw materials chapters); entities established in an eligible listed country but directly or indirectly controlled by a non-eligible country or entity shall not participate.
- Eligible project scope
- Reducing dependencies of critical and strategic raw materials through partial or total substitution by safe and sustainable innovative advanced materials and/or via more efficient use of critical and strategic raw materials in production processes;
- Other condition
- Innovation Actions.
- Other condition
- Activities are expected to start at TRL 5 and achieve TRL 7 by the end of the project – see General Annex B.
- Other condition
- Horizon Europe General Annexes describe personnel as actual costs unless declared as a unit cost; they separately list SME-owner/natural-person personnel unit costs, subcontracting as actual costs, purchases as actual costs unless unit cost, and FSTP only if provided by the specific call. Therefore these personnel categories do not turn an external service purchase or subcontract into a hire, and no specific FSTP entitlement is asserted for this topic.
- Other condition
- For A.1 employees/equivalent, the HE MGA states annual personnel costs divided by 215 as the daily-rate basis; declared day-equivalents must be identifiable and verifiable. The total declared day-equivalents per person across EU grants in a year cannot exceed 215, minus parental leave time where applicable.
- Other condition
- 2026–2027 Horizon Europe topic HORIZON-CL4-2027-01-MAT-PROD-22: Innovative advanced materials and new production processes – reducing dependencies on Critical and Strategic Raw Materials (IA) (Innovative Advanced Materials for the EU and Processes4Planet partnerships).
Amounts and costs
- Indicative budget
- €36,000,000
Topic budget as stated in the portal's budget table. Lump-sum and per-project limits are in the call conditions.
- Eligible cost
- Directly contracted natural persons (under a non-employment contract) and paid seconded persons may be personnel costs when assigned to the action and meeting general eligibility conditions; they must work under conditions similar to employees, results belong to the beneficiary unless agreed otherwise, and actual costs must not be significantly different from employees performing similar tasks.
- Eligible cost
- Employees/equivalent may be charged as personnel costs only if general eligibility conditions are met, the person works for the beneficiary under an employment contract or equivalent appointing act, is assigned to the action, and remuneration-linked amounts arise under national law or the employment terms; this category is based on costs actually incurred.
- Eligible cost
- The HE MGA allows nonsalaried SME owners and natural-person beneficiaries to claim personnel costs as unit costs under Annex 2a, subject to general eligibility conditions; the AGA gives a daily-rate formula of EUR 8,745.4 divided by 18 days, multiplied by the applicable country-specific correction coefficient for calls opened on or after 30 July 2024. This is a unit-cost calculation, not an employee salary cap or rate guaranteed for every country.
- Expected project funding, up to
- €7,500,000
Indicative expected contribution only; the topic expressly allows different requested amounts; not a hard cap.
- Expected project funding, from
- €6,000,000
Indicative expected contribution only; the topic expressly allows different requested amounts.
- Topic allocation
- €36,000,000
Topic-level indicative allocation; not the per-project expected contribution.
Personnel and services
Other role
Staff cost the grant can fund
Potential fundable personnel category only when the grant conditions and Article 6.2.A.2 apply; assigned to the action, work under conditions similar to an employee, result belongs to beneficiary unless agreed otherwise, and actual direct-contract costs are not significantly different from comparable employees. It is a contractor engagement category, not employee payroll; no qualification, headcount, FTE, duration or rate is set by this topic.
Other role
Staff cost the grant can fund
Potential fundable personnel category under the applicable Horizon Europe General MGA, conditional on actual action assignment and all eligibility rules. This is not a call-specific required team, named job, or promise of award. Qualification, headcount, FTE, duration and salary are not stated by the topic. Employee remuneration must be actual and linked to national law/employment terms; daily-rate and reporting rules are described in the cited MGA.
Other role
Staff cost the grant can fund
Potential personnel unit-cost category where the applicable grant agreement includes Article 6.2.A.4. Applies only to an SME owner not receiving a salary or a natural-person beneficiary not receiving a salary, with work assigned to the action and general unit-cost conditions met. The daily unit rate is country-adjusted; it is not a salary and this packet does not assert a per-person EUR rate without the recipient country coefficient. No required headcount, FTE, duration or qualification is named in this topic.
Other role
Staff cost the grant can fund
Potential fundable personnel category only when the grant conditions and Article 6.2.A.3 apply; assigned to the action, works under conditions similar to an employee and actual costs are not significantly different from comparable beneficiary employees. This is a paid secondment, not a new employment contract with the beneficiary. No call-specific qualification, headcount, FTE, duration or pay rate is stated.
Source documents
Call facts
- Opens
- 13 Oct 2026
- Deadline model
- Single-stage
- Programme
- Horizon Europe · 2021 - 2027
- Call
- HORIZON-CL4-2027-01 · INDUSTRY
- Types of action
- HORIZON Innovation Actions
- Source
- ec.europa.eu
- Checked
- 23 Oct 2026
- Portal updated
- 14 Oct 2026
- Review status
- Partial review
- Reviewed
- 22 Oct 2026
This is a summary of the source page, not the official text. Eligibility, conditions and the submission system are at the source.