Open Call: Expression of Interest for IPCEI Circular and Advanced Materials

What is an Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI)?

An IPCEI is a large-scale, cross-border project initiated and coordinated by EU Member States, focusing on sectors that boost innovation and investments in green and digital industries. Rather than a European funding programme, an IPCEI is a formal notification procedure through which the Member States request authorisation from the European Commission to grant state aid that exceeds the limits imposed by standard aid rules.

IPCEIs are intended to support major investments in research, development and innovation (R&D&I) and first industrial deployment (FID) and open infrastructures in cases where the market alone cannot provide sufficient support.

IPCEI Circular and Advanced Materials (IPCEI CAM)

Building a sustainable and competitive European economy requires a transition towards advanced materials that are safe, recyclable, and produced in accordance with circular-economy principles. Yet today, the European advanced materials sector faces major challenges, including a high dependence on non-European raw materials and the need to accelerate innovation to reduce strategic dependencies and to strengthen Europe’s industrial competitiveness, in particular in key sectors such as energy, mobility, and electronics.

To address these challenges, the Belgian federal and regional governments, together with several other EU Member States, have decided to explore the launch of an IPCEI in the field of advanced materials for clean technologies. The current call for expression of interest is aimed at identifying companies in Flanders and Wallonia active in this field that wish to participate in innovation projects through partnerships across the European value chain.

Objectives

The IPCEI CAM aims to strengthen the EU's strategic autonomy in the field of circular advanced materials for clean technologies. The initiative focuses on promoting sustainable innovation within the energy, mobility and electronics sectors and seeks to address barriers (such as dependence on imported raw materials and high R&D&I costs) by coordinating transnational R&D&I and FID projects. This promotes the creation of an integrated ecosystem that contributes to the EU’s green transition goals.

Projects within IPCEI CAM will aim to:

• Strengthen circularity and resource efficiency by prioritising advanced materials that are easier to recycle, sustainably sourced, and designed to minimise waste and reduce material use.
• Stimulate innovation across the entire value chain by developing and/or scaling up innovative advanced material solutions that improve sustainability, reparability, reuse and reconditioning potential, integrating circular-economy principles from production through end-of-life.

Project requirements

To be eligible for IPCEI CAM, projects must meet the following criteria:

• The technical and industrial project must be highly innovative and go beyond current cutting-edge technologies and knowledge in that field (state of the art).
• It must address a clear market failure that makes it impossible to be carried out without support, and if it cannot achieve the same results with the existing support instruments. The market failure and the need for IPCEI support to address the failure must be demonstrated by the project applicant.
• The company must operate within the specified value chain.
• The project may focus on research, development and innovation (R&D&I) and/or the first industrial deployment (FID), in accordance with the guidelines on eligible costs. The term ‘first industrial deployment’ refers to the scaling up of pilot facilities or the construction of the very first equipment and installations covering the phases following the pilot line – including the testing phase – but not mass production or commercial activities.
• The project must deliver a concrete, identifiable, and significant contribution to EU objectives or strategies.
• There must be a strong dynamic of cooperation within the EU.
• The company must commit to disseminating the newly acquired knowledge within the framework of the funded activities (spillovers), not only among its customers, suppliers and project partners, but throughout the EU. The IPCEI must enable the dissemination of knowledge on a very large scale, regardless of whether or not it is protected by a title or an intellectual property right. The mechanisms for knowledge dissemination must be set out clearly in the companies’ project portfolios. Protected results will be disseminated under fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory market conditions. Applicants must demonstrate how other players in the ecosystem, in particular SMEs, will benefit from the support in the project, even if they are not direct beneficiaries of support granted in the project.
• Start-up companies may be eligible; in that case, the application must be submitted by the future shareholders.
• The company must not be subject to an outstanding recovery order for aid deemed unlawful and incompatible in a decision of the European Commission.
• The company must not be in financial difficulty as defined in Article 2(18) of the General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER).
• The project must be co-financed by the beneficiary and may also be co-funded with other European funds.

It is also possible to participate in an IPCEI as an indirect/associated partner. An indirect/associated partner is part of the IPCEI network and develops partnerships with the other participants but does not receive funding under the IPCEI Communication (2021/C 528/02) and is therefore not subject to the notification procedure with the European Commission. This form of participation applies in situations where the partner finances its own project or where financing can take place under standard state aid rules. 

Associated partners participate with their own project. They have been pre-selected at national/regional level through the call for expressions of interest, have received national/regional support and have a structural collaboration with at least one foreign direct partner. Indirect partners can be involved in various ways. An indirect/associated partner must be approved by at least one Belgian authority involved in this IPCEI.

Type of participation by region

Flanders:

• Participation as direct partner (for R&D&I, including FID projects)
• Participation as associated partner (for R&D&I projects)

R&D&I projects carried out by associated partners are limited to a maximum grant amount of 3 million euros. There is no requirement to demonstrate a funding gap.

In exceptional cases, a grant exceeding €3 million may be requested for R&D&I projects. In such cases, the funding gap must be demonstrated, and the grant amount will be capped based on the demonstrated funding gap.

After project selection, the company will need to apply for a VLAIO grant under the regular R&D programme. The aid is ultimately granted on the basis of the General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER); the limits set out in the GBER for industrial research and experimental development projects must not be exceeded.

Wallonia:

R&D&I projects, which may also include an FID phase, can be supported as direct or indirect/associated partners. More information can be found on the website of FPS Economy.

Deadline and submission

The application must be submitted by email to the FPS Economy at ipceieconomie.fgov.be (ipcei[at]economie[dot]fgov[dot]be), for the attention of the relevant funding authorities. The submission deadline is 15 June 2026 at 18:00.

Templates for direct and indirect/associated partners are available on the website of FPS Economy.

Support for Flemish companies

Flemish companies interested in participating, or wishing to discuss a project idea, are welcome to contact VLAIO's IPCEI team for advice and guidance on the application procedure:

• Elsie de Clercq :  elsie.declercqvlaio.be (elsie[dot]declercq[at]vlaio[dot]be)
• Els Tourwé : els.tourwevlaio.be (els[dot]tourwe[at]vlaio[dot]be)

For more information regarding support for Flemish companies, visit the VLAIO website.