Deadline Date: April 21, 2026
Applicants are now invited to submit applications for European Commission to advance circular advanced materials by integrating innovative design, scalable manufacturing and market-ready solutions.
The focus areas include accelerating the adoption of innovative advanced materials designed for circularity through faster production and technology uptake, enabling business models that enhance the use of circular advanced materials in strategic value chains, significantly increasing resource efficiency in terms of materials and energy, and addressing quality standards, harmonisation and regulatory requirements to facilitate simplified market transition.
The scope of this topic focuses on enabling circularity and resilient supply networks through research and innovation in advanced materials, particularly recyclable polymers and composites, magnets, and metals and alloys for additive manufacturing. Proposals are expected to develop new innovative advanced materials with superior or novel functionalities that are designed for circularity, alongside the necessary processes and technologies to ensure their integration into industrial manufacturing and facilitate market uptake. Circular business models should be developed, taking into account lifecycle costs and the changes required across the value chain to support adoption.
The scope covers the full innovation cycle, from design for circularity and functional integration through material development and scale-up, including scalable recovery, recycling and valorisation at end of life, to demonstration of industrial uptake and integration into products. The transformative potential of the developed solutions should be demonstrated through industrial use cases and demonstrators, with projects also exploring the transfer of solutions to other applications or sectors where relevant.
The innovation process should be guided by the Safe and Sustainable by Design framework to support the development of safer and more sustainable chemicals and advanced materials. Where relevant, data generated within projects may be shared with the Common Data Platform for Chemicals. New alternatives should meet the technical functions required for specific applications while aligning innovation decision-making with this framework.
The use of digital tools and FAIR data, including artificial intelligence and data-driven approaches, should support circular transition efforts across industry and circular product design. This includes sharing FAIR and interoperable data, tools and standards across supply networks and value chains to enable circularity throughout materials development, production and product design. Proposals should adhere to FAIR data principles and adopt relevant data standards and good practices for data sharing and access.
Collaboration among stakeholders along the innovation chain and industrial value networks is expected to accelerate the development and adoption of circular solutions. Projects should build on or collaborate with existing initiatives in EU Member States and Associated Countries and develop synergies with European, national or regional programmes and platforms, particularly the Materials Commons for Europe.
Proposals should support strategic value chains in the fields of mobility and medical devices, with applicants required to declare the main application area of their proposal. A portfolio approach will be used to ensure coverage of both areas. Proposals must include a business case and an exploitation strategy as outlined in the introduction to this Destination. This topic implements the co-programmed European Partnerships Innovative Advanced Materials for the EU and Made in Europe.
This topic is funded under Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Actions, with a total indicative budget of EUR 37 million and an expected EU contribution ranging from EUR 5 million to EUR 6.5 million per project. Participation is open to any legal entity, regardless of place of establishment, including entities from non-associated third countries or international organisations, provided that the conditions of the Horizon Europe Regulation and the specific call or topic are met. A legal entity is defined as any natural or legal person recognised under national, EU or international law with legal personality, enabling it to exercise rights and obligations in its own name.
For more information, visit European Commission.
