Background and scope
The share of renewables in electricity generation in the EU rose to 47% in 2024 compared to 34% in 2019 and this has also underpinned an exponential increase in the EU’s demand for base metals, battery materials, rare earths and other materials for renewable energy generation and storage systems. However, most of these materials are not currently sourced or processed in Europe.
As stated in the European Commission Communication “Advanced Materials for Industrial Leadership, there is an urgent need to boost all the stages of development of advanced materials, such as their design, scale-up and manufacturing capacity (from lab to fab)to enhance the EU’s strategic autonomy in key sectors such as energy, while addressing sustainability, circularity and safety issues.
The absence of a common European approach will pose a considerable risk to the EU’s future energy strategic autonomy and requires investments. These target both developers and producers of advanced materials.
This Challenge therefore aims at scaling startups and SMEs developing advanced materials with added functionalities and improved performance specifically designed for energy storage or energy generation/harvesting systems. The targeted systems cover solar cells, wind turbines, mid-long term energy storage and energy harvesting technologies exploited across Europe.
Specific objectives
The start-ups and SMEs to be supported under this Challenge must focus on the development of advanced materials for renewable energy or energy storage systems, encompassing the design, synthesis, characterisation, up-scaling, and production of such materials.
The advanced materials and associated processes must be developed minimizing the use of resources, in particular critical raw materials (CRMs), and the environmental footprint. The latter is to be measured with a life-cycle analysis that includes an evaluation of the cost and social impact.
Expected outcomes and impacts
In support of the Commission Communication on Advanced Materials for Industrial Leadership, the European Green Deal industrial plan, the New European Innovation Agenda, Digital Europe and the EU Economic Security Strategy, this Challenge is expected to:
- Develop along the value chain, and support the integration of new advanced materials with improved functionalities in renewable energy sources and mid-long term energy storage systems
- Enable a more diversified, digitally driven, and risk-aware configuration of the European advanced materials value chain and associated processes and technologies for energy harvesting/generation and mid-long term energy storage systems
- Accelerate market uptake of innovative advanced materials with added functionalities in the energy sector
- Address the EU’s industrial dependency on the import of materials for the energy sector, and
- Strengthen the European value chain of advanced materials for the energy sector.
Companies selected for support under this Challenge will become part of the wider advanced materials ecosystem to be fostered by the different actions set out in the Advanced Materials for Industrial Leadership, amongst these the new co-programmed partnership IAM4EU.
EIC Work Programme 2026
The EIC Challenges are extensively described in the EIC Work Programme. For more information about this challenge, please go to the corresponding section of the EIC Work Programme.