M-era.Net - From materials science and engineering to innovation for Europe

In the framework of ERA-NET Cofund M-era.Net, the French National Research Agency (ANR), in partnership with 50 funding agencies from 36 different countries, launches a new call for projects on materials science and engineering: M-ERA.NET 2021 (2022 edition for the ANR).

Foster research and innovation on materials science and engineering for low carbon energy and related production technologies.

Established in 2012, the M-era.Net consortium has federated a vast network on materials research, allowing collaboration between the main academic and industrial research partners of European and non-European countries and regions. The supported projects have facilitated the generation of knowledge, ranging from basic research to innovative industrial applications.

In recent years, significant efforts have been made to ensure industry can meet the challenges in terms of new materials, as well as products and processes required. The M-era.Net Call 2021 aims more specifically to meet the societal challenges et technological needs with a multidisciplinary approach. Indeed, advanced materials have been classified under the Strategic Energy Technology (SET) plan as Key Enabling Technologies (KET), with a wide range of products applications such as improving energy and resource efficiency. In particular, research on batteries is a core subject in this Call, transversal for all topics.

In addition, this call highlights the EU's commitment for a circular economy and sustainable development goals, in line with the adoption by the European Commission of a new circular economy package, to help European businesses and consumers.

A call for projects focused on 5 main topics

The objective of this call is to promote a community of academic and industrial researchers, at European and international level. Research activities may focus on a wide range of topics along the value chain in the domain of materials science and engineering.

The call will feature 6 main topics:

• Topic 1: Modeling for materials engineering and processing
• Topic 2: Innovative surfaces, coatings and interfaces
• Topic 3: High performance composites
• Topic 4: Functional materials
• Topic 5: New strategies for advanced material-based technologies in health applications (not funded by ANR)
• Topic 6: Materials for Additive Manufacturing

Transversal priority: research on future batteries

Research on batteries is a key objective of the Call 2021 and clearly addressed in the scope of multiple topics. Battery-related objectives are explicitly highlighted in the respective detailed topic descriptions (see the call text).

The call text, containing also the list of countries and regions participating at this call, is available at M-era.Net Call 2021 website https://www.m-era.net/joint-call-2021

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

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