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Zabala Innovation Consulting, S.A.

ZABALA

We are a leading international consultancy firm in innovation strategy and R&D financing.

Lobbying Activity

Response to Advanced Materials Act

13 Jan 2026

Advanced Materials (AM) are essential system technologies for Europes industrial competitiveness, resilience and strategic autonomy, underpinning key value chains in mobility, energy, electronics, construction and health. Zabala Innovation welcomes the Advanced Materials Act (AMA) as a necessary horizontal framework to operationalise the EU strategy on Advanced Materials for Industrial Leadership and to accelerate the full AM pipeline, from research to large-scale industrial deployment. Europes core challenge lies in speed and scale. While scientific excellence is strong, the translation of AM innovation into competitive products is slowed by long development cycles, high investment risk and fragmentation along value chains, particularly in the missing middle between research actors and system integrators. The AMA should directly address these structural barriers by shortening time-to-market, de-risking scale-up and strengthening integration across value chains. Strong alignment with FP10 and the future European Competitiveness Fund (ECF) is essential to ensure continuity across TRLs and to maximise the impact of public and private investment. From Zabalas perspective, reinforcing industrial participation and market uptake must be a central objective of the AMA. This requires dedicated support for pilot and demonstration facilities, first industrial deployment and ramp-up activities, especially for SMEs, together with instruments tailored to first-of-a-kind applications. Improved coordination between EU, national and regional programmes is also critical, enabling projects to progress seamlessly through complementary funding mechanisms and aligned rules. Effective governance will be a decisive success factor. The AMA should be supported by a forward-looking analytical capacity that systematically scans emerging and strategically relevant materials domains. This scanning should be an independent and structured exercise, aligned with the priorities of the Multiannual Financial Framework through an appropriate steering mechanism, and closely connected to the strategic orientations of FP10 and the ECF. Such anticipatory analysis would enable evidence-based prioritisation, early identification of critical technologies and timely adaptation of policy instruments. As a framework for key enabling and foundational technologies, the AMA should also help structure Europes partnership landscape. A strong transversal advanced materials partnership should feed into dedicated partnerships in strategic technology fields such as semiconductors, hydrogen or batteries. These, in turn, should provide clear directional input along industrial value chains to system integrator partnerships in sectors including aviation, rail, automotive, energy and construction. Finally, regulatory predictability, faster certification and standardisation, access to open innovation infrastructures, effective use of data and digital tools, and a strong skills agenda must be integral to the AMA. Combined, these elements can ensure that advanced materials innovation delivers tangible industrial, economic and societal impact, strengthening Europes competitiveness and technological sovereignty. In this context, the Act should also contribute to creating market demand by supporting early offtake, fair competition and a level playing field for European industry. Ensuring that sustainability, safety and performance standards are effectively enforced for all products placed on the EU market, including imports, would strengthen confidence and investment incentives. By combining market pull with targeted public investment, infrastructure and skills, the AMA can become a key instrument to secure Europes leadership in advanced materials and to reduce strategic dependencies across critical industrial ecosystems, supporting European value chains and long-term industrial resilience, reinforcing investor confidence and accelerating deployment.
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Meeting with Elena Sancho Murillo (Member of the European Parliament) and Prosus

24 Jun 2025 · Relevant issues to the ITRE Committee

Meeting with Elena Sancho Murillo (Member of the European Parliament)

24 Apr 2025 · Relevant issues to the ITRE Committee

Meeting with Janusz Wojciechowski (Commissioner) and

31 Jan 2023 · They would like to discuss about the agricultural sectors from Navarra

Meeting with Izaskun Bilbao Barandica (Member of the European Parliament)

11 Oct 2022 · Innovación

Response to Commission Delegated Regulation amending Regulation (EU) 2019/856 as regards the application procedure

14 Apr 2021

The document attached is providing Zabala Innovation feedback on the Innovation Fund large scale call application closed in October 2020, not only as regards the application in two stages but also as regards the impact of evaluation criteria on the ranking of proposals. We are available to further exchange with the EC on the application process and ranking system.
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Response to Multiannual Financial Framework: Digital Europe programme

26 Jul 2018

Feedback on Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL establishing the Digital Europe programme for the period 2021-2027 (the proposed regulation) The following comments are made on behalf of the proposed regulation: - Budget and financial instruments. Across different sections of the proposed regulation it is mentioned the New Financial Regulation (FR). This FR is not public not available anywhere. By experience is not usually the spirit of a programme but its actual implementation through the different financial tools what makes a success in the implementation and further impact. FR should be drafted in parallel with the proposed regulation, in order to deeply understand what is proposed in practical terms. - Budget distribution: A suggestion will be following an always-increasing annual budget for the whole programme. Going into the details of the annual planning of the budget it is seen that the budget starts with 1,337 billion in 2021, increasing until 2023 to 1,537 billion. Then a sudden drop in 2014 to 1,116 billion and finishing with 1,236 billion in 2027. That means DEP will count with a lower budget in its last year than in the first one. Experience in EU funding programmes tend to prove resubmissions and increase on participation usually happen when the programme is known (last years). Adapting the budget to this trend will be a logical step in DEP. - Areas in DEP. Although the programme is divided in 5 main areas, the last one is introduced in the proposed regulation as “Interoperable solutions in areas of public interest” then divided in two budgetary lines “Deployment, best use of digital capacities” and “Interoperability” and sometimes the text provides even an overlap between this fifth area and the one on Digital Skills. Providing a clear definition on the last two areas of the programme would facilitate its comprehension. - Other programmes. Although a deep description on other programmes is provided is sometimes difficult to understand why DEP is different or how will it complement existing initiatives like EuroHPC, where funds seem that would combine efforts from H2020.
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Meeting with Dominique Ristori (Director-General Energy)

12 Apr 2016 · Energy policy