For the latest issue of the ELCA newsletter, we spoke with Eva Schillinger  to discuss the role of the IAM4EU partnership in shaping Europe’s industrial future, its focus on advanced materials for clean-tech and deep-tech, how it aims to foster collaboration across sectors, and the challenges and opportunities of aligning with new regulations and funding programmes to keep Europe competitive and resilient in a fast-changing global landscape.

 

What are the main goals and expected impact of the IAM4EU partnership on the EU’s industrial transformation?

IAM4EU’s objectives are directly derived from the European Commission’s strategic plan for
Advanced Materials, as laid out in the Communication on Advanced Materials for Industrial Leadership of February 2024. Advanced Materials are crucial for applications in a multitude of markets and are essential for enabling the Clean Industrial Deal – this new partnership aims at Advanced Materials development as a whole by paying special attention to common needs and motives for Advanced Materials in applications across several markets, such as e.g. the design of these materials for a circular economy or the power of enabling technologies, such as digitalisation. A special role is of course played by Advanced Materials that go into DeepTech and CleanTech, which are paramount in the first four prioritised application markets, construction, energy, mobility and electronics.

 

How does DG Research and Innovation envisage the role of IAM4EU in enhancing Europe’s competitiveness and achieving strategic autonomy in key technological areas?

DG Research and Innovation is very clear on the central role which Advanced Materials play for industrial leadership. The partnership envisions to federate a comprehensive and inclusive ecosystem around Advanced Materials stakeholders and function as an accelerator along the R+D&I value chain to bring innovation to markets faster. As stated above, the first four technology areas
identified will be electronics, mobility, energy and construction. Among the research needs clearly identified are e.g. CRM-reduced and efficient advanced materials, the design for circularity and a focus on Safe and Sustainable-by-design principles.

What are the key regulatory and policy challenges in bringing advanced materials from research to market, and how is the Commission addressing them?

There is a number of regulatory initiatives that have an impact on research and application for Advanced Materials, such as the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, the End-of-Life Vehicles Regulation, the Critical Raw Materials Act, and the most recently published Automotive Action Plan. This list is by no means exhaustive and also strongly depends on for which application markets the respective advanced materials are foreseen, including the consideration that an Advanced Material normally is integrated along the industrial value chain by component manufacturers up to eventually system integrations.

For the research and development phase, regulatory consistency is key, looking at long timelines for developments especially of completely new-to the world advanced materials. In that regard, integrating the principles of safe and sustainable by-design (SSbD) into the innovation process (based on the European Commission’s SSbD framework) will support regulatory preparedness, the framework here needs to be lean and pragmatic to use. Another key aspect is funding for upscaling, especially to bridge the “valley of death” amongst other measures, special Clean Industrial Deal calls are in planning that are specifically addressed at higher TRL levels.

Are there specific European programs or funding mechanisms that help accelerate the adoption of advanced materials in manufacturing?

As Advanced Materials are central to a multitude of (industrial) applications, including manufacturing, they show up in this context in different programs and funding schemes, e.g. a strong collaboration of the Cluster 4 partnerships for WP26/27 is in planning, especially also targeting advanced materials and manufacturing and processing. But also other instruments such as an IPCEI on circularity in advanced materials, covering aspects of manufacturing and processing, are in the planning.

Looking ahead, what major trends or breakthrough technologies in advanced materials do you think will have the biggest impact on European industry in the next decade?

The field of advanced materials is very heterogeneous and spans a broad bandwidth of applications, each technology being in their own right of very high importance for the respective applications. Aspects that, however, stand out in terms of importance for field of advanced materials and will be paramount in the next ten years are materials data (harmonisation and sharing), modelling, digitalisation as a whole and the use of AI. This is valid for ALL stages of the advanced materials value chain, from R&D stages to coming to the market as innovative products. These enabling technologies will be key drivers for the field in the next decade.

Many thanks to Eva Schillinger  Secretary General of IAM-I for her contributions and insights, take a look at their official page here. 

 

View issue 6 of our newsletter that features this interview plus more!

 

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