New Deadline for Material Commitments

Following some technical issues, stakeholders in the European raw materials value chain have a few more days to submit commitment proposals on the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on Raw Materials. The deadline for submission is now Friday 7 February.

To be successful, the EIP on Raw Materials needs to involve a large number of partners across the European Union and the entire raw materials value chain to carry out actions that contribute to its objectives. This is why the European Commission has launched an open call for commitments by actors in the private, public and non-governmental sectors including academia.

The call aims to trigger a number of individual commitments (referred to as Raw Material Commitments – RMCs) where the partners jointly commit to co-operate and take actions that can help achieve the objectives of the EIP’s Strategic Implementation Plan (SIP). The full SIP consists of two parts: Part 1 and Part 2.

What is a Raw Materials Commitment?
A commitment is a joint undertaking by several partners, who commit to carrying out activities that will contribute to achieving the EIP's objectives within the period 2014-2020. Commitments must aim at achieving one or more innovations (either directly or indirectly) and bring them to the market, such as new products, processes, services, technologies, business models or ideas that can be brought to the market. A commitment may also aim at bringing wider societal benefits through innovation.

The EIP on Raw Materials aims to improve the security of supply and the efficient and sustainable management of non-energy, non-agricultural raw materials. The EIP’s SIP proposes a range of actions necessary to achieve its objectives and targets including research and innovation along the value chain, raw materials knowledge, best practise, revision of selected legislation, standardisation, and policy dialogues.

To achieve these objectives, the European Commission will publish a Call for Commitments to Member States, industry, academia and other relevant stakeholder every two years until 2020.

EIP objectives
The EIP on Raw Materials has a number of specific objectives:

• to reduce the EU's dependency on imports of raw materials
• to promote production and exports by improving supply conditions from within and outside the EU, and by providing resource efficiency and alternatives in supply
• to bring Europe to the forefront in the raw materials sector, whilst mitigating the sector’s negative environmental, social and health impacts.

The raw materials that the EIP targets are vital inputs for innovative technologies and offer environmentally-friendly, clean-technology applications. They are also essential for the manufacture of new and innovative products required by our modern society, such as batteries for electric cars, photovoltaic systems and devices for wind turbines.