The European Commission has made available the Draft Horizon 2020 Work Programme 2016-2017 in the area of Climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials. This paper is made public just before the adoption process of the work programme to provide potential participants with the currently expected main lines of the work programme 2016-2017. It is a working document not yet endorsed by the Commission and its content does not in any way prejudge the final decision of the Commission.
The adoption and the publication of the work programme by the Commission are expected in mid-October 2015.
Securing the sustainable access to raw materials, including metals, industrial minerals and construction raw materials, and particularly Critical Raw Materials, for the EU economy is of high importance. Therefore the European Commission has identified a number of specific challenges:
New solutions for sustainable production of raw materials and in particular new technologies for the enhanced recovery of by-products and new sensitive exploration technologies
Raw materials Innovation actions and in particular an EU expert network on CRMs such as ERECON.
The project is expected to contribute to: – achieving the objectives and the implementation of both the Raw Materials Initiative and the EIP on Raw Materials, in particular in terms of the access to critical raw materials (CRMs); – better informed decision making by the EU and Member States policy makers and the producers and users of raw materials regarding the supply of raw materials; – development of European standards for the treatment of WEEE, waste batteries and other relevant end-of-life products that would help towards optimising the recovery of critical raw materials; – increased recovery rates in the EU as regards CRMs from WEEE, waste batteries and other relevant end-of-life products; – in longer term reduced EU dependency on imports of CRMs; – improved awareness of relevant external stakeholders and general public across the EU about importance of the critical raw materials for society, challenges related to their supply and about proposed solutions.
On 21 September 2015 the European Commission is organising an Information Day in Brussels to present the 2016 work programme of Horizon 2020’s Societal Challenge “Climate Action, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials”.
To read the full draft Horizon 2020 Work Programme 2016-2017, please click here.
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