ERA-MIN 2 - Raw materials for sustainable development and circular economy

In the framework of ERA-NET Cofund ERA-MIN2, the French National Research Agency (ANR) launches, in partnership with 21 funding agencies from 18 different countries, a second call for projects on non-agricultural non-energy raw materials. The global budget available for this call is 10 M€.

Towards a responsible and sustainable approach of raw materials

Era-Net ERA-MIN 2 aims at promoting breakthrough solutions to foster the European industrial development via research projects in the field of non-agricultural non-energy raw materials, in particular those having limited resources, either intrinsically or for geopolitical reasons. The target is to secure the European raw materials supply, both primary and secondary, by ensuring a responsible and sustainable approach.

Industries should increase the efficient use of these resources, or even substitute them with other elements allowing their products to keep an equivalent or improved functionality. Moreover, all these processes must be designed and progressively integrated in a framework of circular economy. Research efforts are therefore needed at each stage of the value chain (exploration, design, use and recycling...). This follows the efforts of the European Commission in supporting multilateral research projects focusing on the implementation of a European cooperation in research and innovation in the field of raw materials, to increase industrial competitiveness and advance towards circular economy.

A call for projects focused on 5 main topics

The objective of this call is to help the promotion of a research community, academic and industrial, today too fragmented at European level. Research activities may focus on a wide range of topics along the value chain in the domain of non-agricultural non-energy raw materials.  Raw materials concerned by this call are metal ores and industrial materials (except construction and demolition wastes); resources can be either primary or secondary, as urban mining or waste of electric and electronic devices (WEEE).

The call will feature 5 main topics:

• Mines exploration, operation and remediation (sub-topic n°2: “operation” will not be funded by ANR)
• Design of new products for increased raw materials efficiency and critical materials substitution, for instance those with difficult supply or toxicity issues;
• Processing, production and remanufacturing, with increased energy end resource efficiency and valorization of by-products and residues;
• Recycling of end-of-life products, and associated recovery processes, in a circular economy framework
• A cross-cutting topic will cover economic, environmental and social aspects.

For this third call, the cross-cutting topic will be funded by ANR, in order to encourage research about themes of strong societal impact, namely life cycle analysis and stock flows of raw materials, and the development of new business models for the valorization of by- or co-products, historical stocks and mine tailings.

Call text, containing also the list of Countries and Regions participating at the call, is available at ERA-MIN2 website (www.era-min-eu.org) as well as on this page.

Partners of the selected projects will be funded directly by their respective national or regional organizations (agencies or departments). As a result, national regulations apply in addition to call rules.

In particular French applicants should read carefully the document "Terms for French participants", available on this page.