EIT RawMaterials

The demand for raw materials—minerals and metals—will increase immensely over the next 30 years. Driven by the enormous growth of green energy transition and the need to abandon fossil fuels and embrace renewable, clean sources of energy, the demand exposes a high level of supply risk of some materials for Europe.

Raw materials will play a central role in the growth of clean technologies, and meeting therefore, the EU’s 2050 climate-neutrality goal. In the wake of supply disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Europe’s lack of resilience for its growing metals needs has become a strategy concern.

And this is where EIT RawMaterials comes in.

Europe will require a vastly increased use of raw materials. Electric vehicles require six times the amount of raw materials than a conventional car, for example. To secure these high levels, great levels of innovation will be needed to digitalise, automate and electrify current processes along the entire value chain of raw materials, from responsible mining to recycling.

To this end, EIT RawMaterials along with its 300+ partners, supports the development of dynamic, long-term European partnerships among leading companies, research labs and higher education that collaborate together to develop innovation and education initiatives to achieve these goals.

To drive innovation of the raw materials sector, EIT RawMaterials powers innovators and entrepreneurs across the EU and beyond to turn their best ideas into cutting-edge products and services. We actively support the brightest emerging startups and entrepreneurs and to date we have worked with more than 140 upscaling projects as well as over 300 start-ups offering solutions to challenges across the raw materials value chain.

EIT RawMaterials also invests in the skilling of future generations of innovators for the raw materials sector through initiatives ranging from the education of school students to higher qualifications for industry professionals, as well as initiatives that seek to address the gender imbalance by attracting more women to STEM and the geosciences.