Foundation for Science and Technology
FCT
FCT is the coordinator institution of the public-public network ERA-MIN3, under the funding scheme ERA-NET Co-fund (Horizon 2020) which consortium partners are public research funding organisations.
ID: 466136623942-71
Lobbying Activity
Response to European Critical Raw Materials Act
25 Nov 2022
The pan-European network of research funding organisations on non-fuel, non-food raw materials for the sustainable development and the circular economy (ERA-MIN3) supports the Commissions initiative. ERA-MIN3 network is represented by Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), Portugal, at the High-level Steering Group of the EIP on Raw Materials for the period 2021-2024. Moreover, ERA-MIN3 is a member of the EU-Canada RM Stakeholders Forum Steering Committee that drives the Stakeholder dialogue to inform the government-to-government dialogue on raw materials: EU-Canada Bilateral Dialogue on Raw Materials (Article 25.4 of the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement). ERA-MIN3 wishes to provide their views as well as evidence and experience in multilateral cooperation on research and innovation. There is a strong need for mobilising all relevant Member State countries and regions and Associated Countries, with particular emphasis on widening countries, under a flexible framework to link up with their industrial policies and priorities for strengthening the global competitiveness of the EU industry. The way forward would be an European co-funded partnership in 2025 with a cross-sectoral, inter- and transdisciplinary approach, to facilitate the harmonization of national, regional and European priorities across the raw materials value chain, including substitution of CRM supported by advanced materials and production technologies, to support the circularity, sustainability and leadership of the European and worldwide non-fuel, non-food raw materials sector. The expected impacts are access to know-how, skills and expertise on research and innovation among EU Member States in priority areas and strengthening knowledge transfer to local SMEs. Support to research and innovation through multilateral coordinated funding by ERA-MIN between EU Member State countries and regions, can be extended to other strategic countries, namely Greenland, Norway and also to other resource-rich third countries (i.e. Australia, Canada, Japan and US). The EU support to multilateral coordinated funding should continue to be strengthen and supported to ensure access to new knowledge, skills and markets as well as to innovative solutions for the recovery of CRM from waste streams across the value chain, to enable efficient, responsible and sustainable domestic supply with low environmental, health and social impacts. The ERA-MIN3 network provides the framework for the implementation of joint calls for international R&I projects, ERA-MIN supports focused and low TRL innovative R&I projects of small scale in partnership with SME and/or large industry which complement the high TRL projects supported by EIT Raw Materials and Horizon Europe and will create a more balanced EU funding opportunities across Member States and worldwide. The R&I projects funded under ERA-MIN Joint Calls developed a large number of new products, methods, models, processes, services, equipment, prototypes, organisation method and new marketing concept or strategy in support of the ERA-MIN Research Agenda and the Strategic Implementation Plan of the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on Raw Materials and other raw materials EU policies. The support to the academic and industrial communities of countries and regions, in particular newcomers, would promote the internationalisation of their fundamental, applied and experimental development research, thus complementing other EU funding schemes. We realised that participation in ERA-MIN joint Calls enabled the countries to access to additional foreign funding money. More findings in the document in attachment.
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