Innovative technologies for sustainable and decarbonised extraction (RIA)
European Comission
ExpectedOutcome :
A secure supply of sustainable raw materials is crucial for the green and digital transition. Environmentally friendly, safe, intelligent and resource efficient extraction technologies and methods for both open pit and underground mining need to be developed and implemented.
Projects outcomes will enable achieving the expected impacts of the destination by increasing access to primary raw materials in particular critical raw materials[1] for EU industrial value chains and strategic sectors.
Projects are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:
- Develop innovative technologies for extraction of raw materials in the European Union.
- Increase the domestic EU sourcing of raw materials.
- Improve responsible supply of raw materials to Europe 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[2].
- Show the potential to reduce substantially the Green House Gases (GHGs) emissions intensity of extraction per ton of the material (metal, metal content, concentrate, mineral) sold on to the downstream value chain, thus contributing to EU climate neutrality objectives.
- Promote the utilisation of UNFC (United Nations Framework Classification for Resources) and UNRMS (United Nations Resource Management System) in the raw materials sector.
- Accelerate development of EU domestic raw materials exploration projects integrating innovative technologies. Scope :
Actions should develop new sustainable concepts and technological solutions, including alternative approaches, for mining of complex or difficult to access mineral deposits, including mining wastes and abandoned mining sites, particularly addressing the challenges of accessibility, industrial viability, safety and environmental impacts, including water use and GHG intensity of extraction.
Actions should be driven by industry and raw materials users. The actions should duly justify the relevance of all targeted minerals and metals. Priority are the EU critical raw materials. Sea mining is excluded from this topic.
Actions should envisage clustering activities with other relevant selected projects for cross-projects co-operation, consultations and joint activities on cross-cutting issues and share of results as well as participating in joint meetings and communication events. To this end proposals should foresee a dedicated work package and/or task, and earmark the appropriate resources accordingly.
In this topic the integration of the gender dimension (sex and/or gender analysis) in research and innovation content is not a mandatory requirement, however, should you consider it to be of relevance for your specific proposal, you are strongly encouraged to do it.
Specific Topic Conditions :
Activities are expected to achieve TRL 3-5 by the end of the project – see General Annex B.
[1]https://ec.europa.eu/growth/sectors/raw-materials/areas-specific-interest/critical-raw-materials_en
[2]https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/6d541f66-0f81-11ec-9151-01aa75ed71a1
General conditions
- Admissibility conditions: described in Annex A and Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes.
Proposal page limits and layout: described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System.
- Eligible countries: described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes.
A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects. See the information in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide .
- Other eligibility conditions: described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes.
To increase EU resilience in raw materials supply chains and thus reduce the serious risk to the Union's strategic assets, economic and societal interests, autonomy and security associated with the current EU reliance on a few third countries for critical raw materials, by increasing sustainable and responsible sourcing of primary and secondary raw materials necessary to enable the green and digital transition and in alignment with the Communication (2020) 474 on Critical Raw Materials Resilience, 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. The choice of these countries was made taking into consideration the development of strategic international partnerships on raw materials and avoidance of reinforcing existing over-dependencies, as well as the importance of involving partners committed to pursuing open trade in such materials. Proposals including legal entities which are not established in the countries that fall under the criteria above will be ineligible.
Any activity aimed at deploying subliminal techniques beyond a person's consciousness, exploiting any of the vulnerabilities of a specific group of persons and at using emotion recognition systems will be ineligible.
*"African Union member states" includes countries whose membership has been temporarily suspended.
Financial and operational capacity and exclusion: described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes.
Evaluation and award:
Award criteria, scoring and thresholds are described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes.
Submission and evaluation processes are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual .
Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement: described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes.
- Legal and financial set-up of the grants: described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes.
Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum as defined in the Decision of 7 July 2021 authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2021-2027) – and in actions under the Research and Training Programme of the European Atomic Energy Community (2021-2025). [[This decision is available on the Funding and Tenders Portal, in the reference documents section for Horizon Europe, under ‘Simplified costs decisions’ or through this link: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/horizon/guidance/ls-decision_he_en.pdf]].
Specific conditions
- Specific conditions: described in the specific topic of the Work Programme.
Documents
Call documents:
Standard application form (HE RIA, IA) — call-specific application form is available in the Submission System
Standard evaluation form (HE RIA, IA) — will be used with the necessary adaptations
Lump Sum MGA v1.0 — MGA
Guidance: "Lump sums - what do I need to know?"
Additional documents:
HE Main Work Programme 2023–2024 – 1. General Introduction
HE Main Work Programme 2023–2024 – 7. Digital, Industry and Space
HE Main Work Programme 2023–2024 – 13. General Annexes
HE Framework Programme and Rules for Participation Regulation 2021/695
HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764
Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment
EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement
Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual