The European Commission unveiled, on Tuesday 27 February, a draft future strategy for ‘Advanced Materials for Industrial Leadership’, a range of new technologies that can be exploited in a number of key sectors.
These ‘advanced materials’ cover a whole range of technologies and components required for Europe’s green and digital transition. These include, for example, nanoparticles used in solar panels, sodium-ion accumulators used as batteries or thermochromic microcapsules incorporated into construction materials.
This strategy “aims to strengthen the EU’s long-term competitiveness” by ensuring that “the Union remains at the forefront of new material technologies, supporting development, testing and deployment capacities“, the Commission’s document explains.
Strengthening the Union’s open strategic autonomy and improving its economic security are also stated objectives of this communication.
This strategy, drawn up by the Commission in tandem with the Member States, is primarily a working basis for future guidelines. No legislative process on the subject is on the agenda. However, a ‘Technology Council’ is to be set up, responsible for advising the Commission on the steering of this initiative, and made up of the Member States, the countries associated with Horizon Europe and industry.
To achieve this strategy, the Commission states that it wants to “increase capital investment and access to financing. As part of this package of actions, the EU will set up a new partnership with industry under Horizon Europe, targeting €500 million of investment for 2025-2027, including at least €250 million from private sources”.
The stated ambition is to create a common industrial and technological strategy for the EU27 by directing investment, private-public partnerships and the development of research and skills acquisition.
“The idea is to know what we are going to be able to do in the future: use public procurement, address the issue of skills, have common standards for new markets. We need to create a connection between research, innovation, production and trade”, said a European source.
This Communication must be complemented by the future initiative on biotechnology and biofabrication to produce advanced materials.
To see the Commission’s Communication: https://aeur.eu/f/b1p (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)