Yesterday, the Commission has proposed an encompassing strategy to move towards EU industrial leadership in advanced materials, a key enabling technology highly relevant for the twin green and digital transition. The Communication on Advanced Materials for Industrial Leadership puts forward concrete steps enabling to align research and innovation priorities and investments in the EU, ensuring European leadership in this key technology. This initiative, eagerly anticipated by the Member States and industry, is the first step towards a common European approach for advanced materials, laying the groundwork for further action.

Advanced materials are intentionally designed and engineered materials to display superior performance or special functions, which can be developed with unprecedented speed thanks to today's scientific understanding and computing power. They are fundamental for example for innovation in energy, electronics, construction and mobility, and therefore crucial for the green and digital transition. The first list of research areas is expected to be expanded overtime in dialogue with the Technology Council to be set-up...

Read more - Press release

Key points from EMMC perspective (apart from the whole thing)

• New EU Partnership on Advanced Materials announced
• It builds on the work of AMI2030 to which EMMC contributed in the materials modelling and digitalisation topics.
• It acknowledges the accelerated speed and complexity of research, e.g. the prediction of nearly 400,000 stable crystal structures, but insufficient levels of digitalisation.
• It regards the shortage of skills as well as lack of standards including in data description and formats as a key barrier.
• It sets up an overarching goal is to create a long term sustainable European digital infrastructure for advanced materials R&I, the materials commons,  as elaborated in the AMI2030 (and EMMC) Roadmaps.
• The possibility of launching a European Digital Infrastructure Consortium will be explored.
• The materials commons will foster common materials taxonomies, ontologies and data interoperability, while also supporting both the virtual design of materials and the digitalisation of manufacturing processes.

All of these points are aligned with EMMC roadmaps and activities.

For more information

Communication on Advanced Materials for Industrial Leadership

Factsheet

Advanced Materials webpage

EU funded innovative research results in advanced materials