Up-scaling Projects

Up-scaling is tailored to bring innovations towards the market. The most promising innovations are mapped and analysed from different angles: the fit to the EIT RawMaterials strategy, the market’s needs and how they most add value to the raw materials sector. Calls are set up to support up-scaling of innovative technologies, processes and services. External expert panels support in the evaluation and selection of proposals. Projects are executed by diverse partners from industry, RTOs and universities, to ensure knowledge triangle integration. The added value of the up-scaling projects comes from experimenting and testing ideas and technologies, their validation as well as demonstrating their feasibility in prototypes or in full scale. The selected ideas and technologies are first validated (concept building phase) and then developed to reach a pre-production stage (development phase).

Growth Booster Activities

Growth Booster activities help to create novel business from innovations, e.g. finding out customer needs, related market areas and business segments. Incubator Services provide 'one-stop shop' entrepreneurship services. They open up existing services from EIT RawMaterials partners to new start-ups, spin-offs and existing SMEs, and provide active support by top experts. The EIT Jumpstarter presents a high-level challenge to identify the best novel ideas and business concepts. The winner gets intensive follow-up and coaching to develop his/her idea into a game- changing company or product. Growth booster has a specific focus on SMEs expansion beyond their existing local or regional reach. It utilises the industry network of EIT RawMaterials that enables an international expansion by matchmaking with complementary stakeholders. EIT RawMaterials funding instruments are developed to build up over the lifetime of EIT RawMaterials. They will be used to support the best businesses financially and carry innovation initiatives over the 'valley of death'.

The Accelerator Programme is included in the Growth Booster. The overall objective for running an Accelerator programme is to improve the success rate of market entry of scalable start-ups, focusing on addressing market risk. It comprises three phases, and there are stage gates between each of the phases, where start-ups need to be approved before entering the next phase. Each phase has specific objectives, process, funding and timeline. The support provided in each phase follows a clear process, which consists of both group work and individual coaching, as well as anchoring start-ups in their local and national ecosystems while at the same time opening up introductions on a pan-European level to partners in the EIT RawMaterials consortium.

Lighthouse innovation programmes deliver impact

EIT RawMaterials Lighthouses are high-impact innovation activities that address the economic, societal and environmental challenges in Europe.

Lighthouses are implemented through strategic and operational actions such as Innovation and Education Projects, Matchmaking events and Business creation activities as well as:

• Strategic actions in close coordination with external stakeholders
• The European Commission
• National initiatives and Cross-KIC activities

EIT RawMaterials scope

EIT RawMaterials focuses on metal and mineral raw materials. Bio-based and polymer materials are covered in view of their potential as a substitute material. Other materials are also considered in the context of multi-material product recycling. As a result of our broad membership base, EIT RawMaterials has the flexibility to address critical as well as non-critical raw materials.

Six innovation themes guide the interactions between the various actors across the whole value chain:

• Exploration and raw materials resource assessment
• Mining in challenging environments
• Increased resource efficiency in mineral and metallurgical processes
• Recycling and material chain optimisation for End-of-Life products
• Substitution of critical and toxic materials in products for optimised performance
• Design of products and services for the circular economy