This call aims to enhance the security of supply and access to secondary raw materials, particularly critical and strategic materials essential for EU industrial value chains and strategic sectors, thus reducing dependency on primary raw materials. Projects should focus on improving the recovery, recycling, and high-quality reuse of end-of-life products such as electronic waste, batteries, vehicles, and renewable energy equipment, while ensuring sustainability, cost-effectiveness, and minimizing environmental impacts. Proposals are expected to include a business case and exploitation strategy, promote cooperation across projects, and facilitate market uptake of circular economy solutions aligned with the EU Critical Raw Materials Act and sustainable raw materials principles.

Projects are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:

• Increased recovery rate of critical and strategic raw materials as set out in the Critical Raw Materials Act through developing raw materials recycling and re-use of components and/or products from end-of-life (EoL) products, including recovery of raw material by-products.
• Improved competitiveness of secondary raw materials production by enhancing cost effectiveness.
• Improved efficiency of technologies for separation and recycling and the sustainable embedment of the process in terms of energy, resource and water use, waste and emissions (including Green House Gases and air pollutants) footprint.
• Improved responsible supply of raw materials to Europe from EoL streams in line with the EU principles for sustainable raw materials, which are a non-regulatory set of principles based on the EU acquis. They set out requirements for sustainable raw materials and extraction and processing in Europe in terms of social, environmental and economic performance.
• Actions are expected to contribute to the implementation of the EU Critical Raw Materials Act.