Fundación Tekniker
TEKNIKER
TEKNIKER's mission is to contribute to businesses competitiveness and social wellbeing by technology.
ID: 01152007812-56
Lobbying Activity
Response to Advanced Materials Act
13 Jan 2026
EUMAT Feedback to the Advanced Materials Act Executive Summary The Advanced Materials Act should establish a coherent and operational European framework supporting the entire innovation lifecycle of advanced materials, from fundamental research to industrial deployment. A strategic vision and opportunity roadmap are needed to cover all major materials classesincluding quantum materials, metamaterials, advanced composites, and neuromorphic materialswhile addressing the barriers that prevent research results from translating into societal and economic value. EUMAT, the European Advanced Materials and Technologies platform, strongly supports this ambition and proposes key principles and priority actions to ensure effective implementation across research, innovation, education, industry, and society. 1. Digitalisation, AI, FAIR data, and shared infrastructures should be recognised as systemic enablers of the European advanced materials ecosystem. The Act should promote trusted, interoperable data spaces, AI-driven modelling and simulation, and broad access to research and technology infrastructures. Regulatory sandboxes and controlled testing environments are essential to accelerate validation, certification, and standardisation, particularly for SMEs and start-ups. 2. Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) must be embedded throughout materials discovery, development, and deployment. Early integration of safety, sustainability, circularity, and resource efficiencysupported by life-cycle environmental, economic, and social assessmentsis essential to ensure responsible innovation, regulatory alignment, and societal trust. 3. Bridging the gap between research and industrial uptake requires integrated innovation pathways from TRL 3 onwards, covering proof-of-concept, validation, scaling, manufacturing, and supply-chain integration. Instruments such as EIC Transition funding, regulatory sandboxes, and public procurement of innovation should support progression to higher TRLs, with particular emphasis on materials qualification in high-value sectors. 4. European competitiveness and technological sovereignty, especially in semiconductors, AI hardware, robotics, and smart automation, depend on sustained investment in advanced materials. Priority areas include recycling and secondary raw materials, materials for extreme environments, lightweight and resource-efficient design, and scalable manufacturing technologies. Europe should leverage its strengths in equipment, metrology, and edge AI to anchor high-value segments of global value chains. 5. A European Advanced Materials Skills Ecosystem should integrate transdisciplinary education, joint European degrees, micro-credentials, lifelong learning, and structured mobility across academia, RTOs, and industry. Entrepreneurship-oriented training is crucial to support start-up creation and industrial uptake. 6. Coherent governance for dual-use materials research is needed, based on harmonised risk assessment, ethics review, and transparency mechanisms, while enabling cross-fertilisation between civil and defence applications. Improved coordination between EU, national, and regional programmespotentially supported by a European observatory on advanced materialswould strengthen policy coherence. 7. Societal trust and acceptance are decisive for deployment. The Act should embed participatory approaches such as citizen panels, co-creation workshops, and science communication initiatives, particularly in domains close to everyday life (health, mobility, energy, digital technologies), integrating social sciences and humanities. 8. Optimised funding instruments, reduced administrative burden, and territorial cohesion are essential to ensure that the Act strengthens Europes competitiveness, sustainability, resilience, and leadership in advanced materials innovation while avoiding regional disparities. EUMAT Chair, Marco Falzetti.
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