Innovative advanced materials and new production processes – reducing dependencies on Critical and Strategic Raw Materials (IA) (Innovative Advanced Materials for the EU and Processes4Planet partnerships)

Expected outcomes

• The topic does not say whether all outcomes must be addressed; treat them all as relevant.
• For each outcome (EO1 to EO5), name who will use or adopt your results (a specific group, not “industry” or “society”), how they get them, and the indicator that shows the change, with baseline, target and date.
• Use the topic's own words for each outcome, so the evaluator can tick it off.

What the scope asks for

Evaluators check the proposal against these sentences of the scope. Answer each one visibly, in the call's own words.

• “The design and development of innovative advanced materials (IAMs) and processes should lead to an innovation cycle covering the (re)design of materials and production processes, and the integration of IAMs into products.”
• “Proposals should develop IAMs or process technologies to replace or reduce the use of critical and strategic raw materials in strategic areas and sectors such as energy, mobility, construction, electronics, medical devices or chemical industries.”
• “Proposals should address one or several of the following approaches:.”
• “These strategies should demonstrate the value of co-development through specific use cases while maintaining broad relevance across various materials and process types.”
• “Proposals should demonstrate clear use case(s), market and potential to grow.”
• “The substitution barriers for the selected applications should be identified and a driving mechanism for a maximal substitution in the targeted value chains proposed.”
• “If relevant, challenges for the adaption of existing production lines should be identified and solutions proposed.”
• “Proposals should demonstrate that SSbD framework will be applied throughout the innovation process, showing that safety and sustainability principles are actively integrated and influence decision-making in a transparent and traceable way, and ensure that the data generated within the proposal may be shared with the Common Data Platform for Chemicals.”
• “The new alternatives to be developed should meet the technical functions required in the specific applications while aligning their innovation process decision making with such framework.”
• “Proposals should include a business case and exploitation strategy, as outlined in the introduction to this Destination.”
• “Proposals are encouraged to cooperate with relevant projects.”
• “Where relevant, proposals should actively contribute to and cooperate with the EU Innovation and Substitution Hub(s).”

Conditions that shape the proposal

• Part B, sections 1–3: 40 pages (standard application form). Text beyond the limit is not read; tables and figures count.
• TRL: the topic expects TRL 7 by the end of the project. State where you start and the evidence for it.
• Innovation action: evaluators expect a plausible path to commercialisation and named first users or customers.
• Admissibility Conditions: Proposal page limit and layout: “In order to include a business case and exploitation strategy, as outlined in the introduction to this Destination, the page limit is exceptionally extended by 3 pages.”
• Other Eligible Conditions: “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…”
• Other Eligible Conditions: “]], 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[[…”
• Other Eligible Conditions: “]] as well as trade agreements (or association/economic partnership or equivalent agreements, including the new Clean Trade and Investment Partnerships) containing raw materials cooperation provisions (i.e. Energy and Raw materials…”
• Other Eligible Conditions: “Proposals including legal entities which are not established in the countries that fall under the criteria above will be ineligible.”
• Other Eligible Conditions: “For the duly justified and exceptional reasons listed above, in order to guarantee the protection of the strategic interests of the Union and its Member States, entities established in an eligible country listed above, but which are directly or indirectly controlled by a non-eligible country or a non-eligible country…”

Impact pathway and traps

• The scope expects pilots or demonstration. Name the sites, the partners who run them and what is measured there.
• Life-cycle or safe-and-sustainable-by-design assessment is expected. Name the method and where in the work plan it runs.
• Market uptake is part of the scope. Evaluators look for a credible route to market with named first adopters.
• Keep outputs, outcomes and impacts apart: what you deliver, what changes when others use it, and the long-term effect.
• For each destination impact you claim, show which of your outcomes feeds it. Destination impacts are long-term effects, not project deliverables.
• Name the barriers outside the project (regulation, markets, user behaviour) that could block uptake, and what you will do if they do.
• Section 2.3 (the summary canvas) is optional on this call; the old split into scientific, economic and societal impact is no longer required.