News & Events

After four years of research, the RESPECT and FREE4LIB projects are coming together for a joint final event on 2 June 2026 in Brussels — and registrations are now open.

Taking place at the Renaissance Brussels Hotel and accessible online, the full-day event will bring together researchers, industry professionals and policymakers to reflect on four years of advances in sustainable battery recycling and critical raw material recovery.

The programme will feature presentations of key project results, expert panel discussions, and dedicated networking opportunities — offering attendees a unique chance to engage with the latest developments in the battery value chain and connect with the wider European research community.

Whether you are working in academia, industry or policy, this event is your opportunity to discover what RESPECT and FREE4LIB have achieved — and to help shape the conversations that will define what comes next.

You can secure your spot here.

Agenda here.

On the 5th of May 2026, the RENOVATE project held its Clustering Workshop:  “Circular batteries: Pathways for an integrated value chain in Europe” in Milan. Organised by LOMARTOV, D&C leaders, together with INSTM, the project coordinator, and hosted by AFIL at Innovhub SSI facilities. The workshop welcomed 58 participants onsite and 26 online: experts, policymakers, researchers, and industry stakeholders to learn and discuss the European battery value chain, with a strong focus on circularity, sustainability, and EU regulation.

EU policy perspectives and regulatory developments on batteries

The first session was moderated by Eliana Quartarone, our project coordinator, which featured three keynote speeches from: Martina Orefice, Scientific Policy Support for Critical Raw Materials, Joint Research Centre (JRC); Joan Gonzalez Fabra, R&I Policy Officer from Batteries European Partnership Association (BEPA), and Margherita Moreno, Permanent Researcher ENEA, SET Plan IWG Batteries co-chair. The speakers provided valuable insights into the EU Batteries regulation, current state of play, and how regulatory frameworks are shaping the future of battery research, innovation, sustainability, and circularity across Europe.

Showcasing innovation across EU battery projects

The spotlight then moved to EU large-scale battery clustering initiatives in which RENOVATE is actively involved, including Battery 2030+ and the Cluster Hub. Further details on these initiatives are available in our Clustering section. During this session, 8 projects showcased their innovations and objectives towards battery circularity: AUTOMAT, CICERO, CIRCUBATT, GR4FITE3, RESPECT, RENOVATE, RHINOCEROS, and BATMASS, the latter also addressing broader aspects of the battery value chain.

Additionally, we encouraged you to contribute to four ongoing Cluster Hub surveys, designed to support policy development and skills in the battery sector:

The webinar will explore key topics in hydrometallurgy through two high-level expert presentations:

• The Lindy Effect in Hydrometallurgy – Prof. Koen Binnemans (KUL) (11:00-12:00 CET)
  The presentation discusses why established hydrometallurgical technologies remain dominant and why the adoption of new approaches can be challenging. This concept explains industrial hesitation to adopt, as capital-intensive projects favor low-risk, established methods over novel, often less-durable alternatives.
• Reagent Recovery and Recycling by Bipolar Membrane Electrodialysis (BPED) – Emma-Liisa Lappalainen – Research Scientist VTT (12:00-13:00 CET)
  The presentation discusses the use of bipolar membrane electrodialysis for sulphate treatment and the regeneration of acid and base products. It explores its potential to support more sustainable and resource-efficient hydrometallurgical processes.

The webinar is open to undergraduate and postgraduate students, researchers, and all those interested in expanding their knowledge on current developments in hydrometallurgy.

Register here

Registered participants will receive the Zoom link prior to the webinar.

Horizon Europe projects LITHOS, EXCEED, and XTRACT are co-organising a capacity-building webinar on April 29 at 13:00 CET focusing on sustainability assessment, (Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) and Techno Economical Assessment (TEA) in mining and processing activities for critical raw materials (CRMs) production.

The agenda includes the following topics:

• Introduction to LCA of CRMs: the case of battery-grade lithium production, presented by Dr. Georgios Bartzas, Senior Researcher
• Sustainable and Cost-Effective Lithium Extraction from Li-bearing hard rock ores: Process Simulation and Techno-Economic Analysis using SUPERPRO Designer presented by  Associate Professor Dimitrios Ipsakis
• From Environmental Thinking to Social Insight: Introducing Social-LCA, presented by Mrs. Antonia Papadaki, Researcher

The webinar is open to undergraduate and graduate students, early-stage researchers, and professionals interested in enhancing their knowledge in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) and Techno Economical Assessment (TEA), with a focus on their application in mining and processing activities for critical raw materials (CRMs).

This joint initiative aims to communicate the scientific achievements of each project, while strengthening collaboration and knowledge exchange among projects working towards sustainable and responsible mining of critical raw materials.

If you are interested, please register here  by 26 April 2026!

Registered participants will receive an email with the Capacity Building Seminar’s Zoom link.

The RENOVATE project is organising its clustering workshop on 5 May 2026 at the Innovhub Stazioni Sperimentali per l’Industria  (SSI).

Organised by LOMARTOV, D&C leaders, together with INSTM, the project coordinator, the event will bring together research, industry, innovators, sustainability experts and European and regional circular battery clusters. The goal is to explore the latest EU opportunities and policies that support a resilient, climate-neutral, and competitive European battery value chain.

The event will feature keynote sessions, roundtable discussions, and interactive sessions designed to foster collaboration across the battery ecosystem. By connecting diverse perspectives and identifying cross-sector synergies, the event aims to accelerate the deployment of innovative circular battery solutions.

The registration is free but mandatory. Places are limited.

Register here

More info about the event, including the agenda, available at the following link.

Co-authors: Anish Patil (TechConcepts BV), Joana Rosa Gouveia (INEGI), America Quinteros Condoretty (LUT University) & Laura Kainiemi (LUT University)

After three and a half years of research, the EU research project RELiEF has successfully concluded. Beyond presenting its technical outcomes and solutions for lithium and battery recycling, the project published a policy brief. The paper concluded that securing a circular supply of critical raw materials requires coordinated and strategic action and outlined four clear recommendations to help transform secondary resources into strategic assets:

1. Standardise the definition of secondary CRMs
2. Level the playing field through verifiable sustainability
3. Incentivise circulation and cost competitiveness
4. Institutionalise adaptive governance and social license

Download RELief’s policy brief

[In-person & Livestreamed event]

Electric vehicle batteries are a key technology for the EU’s decarbonisation and transition to clean mobility. As demand for lithium-ion batteries is expected to significantly increase in the coming years, building an EU industrial ecosystem for battery circularity can deliver both environmental benefits and economic value for the EU. While the new EU policy landscape is being reshaped with new frameworks such as the Batteries Regulation, the Critical Raw Materials Act and the Industrial Accelerator Act, questions remain about how to translate policy ambition into effective industrial ecosystems for batteries circularity.

This policy-focused event draws on lessons learned from the implementation of the BATRAW project to discuss current challenges and the necessary conditions for scaling up circularity applications for EV battery packs in the EU. Topics to be addressed include regulatory constraints, information and data gaps and market-related challenges affecting recycling and reuse operations across the battery value chain. The discussion will also highlight key enablers and policy instruments for creating the conditions for investment and innovation in battery circularity applications.

Organised in the context of the BATRAW EU-funded project the event will bring together stakeholders from the region (policy makers at different governance levels, industry stakeholders and civil society representatives) to exchange views on how EU and national policies can accelerate the deployment of circular battery solutions and support the EU’s decarbonisation goals.

Agenda and registration 

Europe’s path to climate neutrality depends on critical minerals (lithium, rare earths, nickel, cobalt), which are all increasingly being weaponised in today’s World of Fortresses (dixit Mark Carney). This situation is further exacerbated as a result of (another) war in the Middle East. While recycling and circularity are essential, they cannot fully meet the scale of the cleantech transition. This is now even more true as AI/digitalisation and defense applications are further boosting the demand for critical minerals.

Primary mining and refining of critical minerals will remain necessary. But history shows that mining can bring profound environmental, social and cultural disruption, especially for local and indigenous communities. So the real challenge is not only whether we mine – but under which conditions, and with whom at the table.

The organisers of the present event advocate a shift from “top-down-pushing-it-down-your throat-kind-of-acceptance-approach” to genuine co-creation. We promote community-centric, benefit-sharing approaches where local communities are recognised as active stakeholders in resource governance.

Because the energy transition must also be a just transition. Industry, trade unions, NGOs, indigenous representatives and community voices, policymakers and researchers will engage in an open, respectful dialogue where parties should not only speak but also genuinely LISTEN. We do not seek to secure approval, but to build authentic social contracts for responsible mineral/metal production. The programme combines a global perspective (with inspirational non-EU speakers), a European perspective and a Nordic perspective. In the final session we will wrap it all up and see if we have developed more common ground.

“The energy transition cannot succeed without critical minerals. But it cannot succeed without social legitimacy either.“

Download the event’s programme

What makes leaching and bioleaching truly work? The answer lies in reactor design. This webinar dives into the science behind mixing, mass transfer, and bioreactor performance – revealing how smart design decisions can boost extraction efficiency and sustainability. Drawing on insights from Horizon Europe projects, the webinar will discuss current research and emerging strategies addressing these reactor design challenges.

The next webinar from the METALLICO Webinar Series is coming up, and we are very happy to invite you to join us for the webinar entitled “How Reactors for Leaching and Bioleaching are working – Insights from research to practice”

The session will take place on 9^th of March 2026 from 13:30-15:30 (CET).

The webinar will focus on the topic of reactor design for leaching and bioleaching. It will present scientific and technical perspectives from the European research projects METALLICO, RESPECT, Tetalead and XTRACT and discuss how current research contributes to more efficient and sustainable reactor designs.

Agenda and registration

The Cluster Hub “Materials for Batteries” took the stage at Battery Innovation Days 2025, contributing to the discussion about the strategic role of recycling in the EU Battery Regulation and the broader circular economy.

Presentations explained, one after the other, Europe’s alternatives to build a circular battery ecosystem. With electric mobility accelerating and battery demand soaring, recycling is no longer optional. It has become a strategic necessity for Europe’s competitiveness and climate goals. And the EU wasted no time to announce on 3 December its recent ReSourceEU Action Plan, under the headline “Accelerating our critical raw materials strategy to adapt to a new reality”. ReSourceEU places circularity at the core of EU’s approach to set the basis for competitive CRMs industry in Europe.

Eleonora Cali (RINA), representing the Materials for Batteries Cluster Hub in the parallel session “End of life, start of supply: Advancing battery recycling in Europe” on 2 December, joined leading experts to address two pressing realities in the battery industry:

• Europe’s dependency on imported raw materials. Lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese and graphite are critical for the energy transition, yet supply chains remain dominated by non-European players. Recycling offers a way to keep these resources in Europe, reduce environmental impact, and comply with EU regulations on secondary raw material content. The European Commission’s new Battery Regulation aims to change that by mandating minimum recycled content for key materials from 2031. This is more than an environmental measure: it is an industrial policy designed to keep resources within Europe and reduce strategic dependency.
• the expected surge of end-of-life batteries. With EU speeding up its transition to electric mobility, the question of what happens to millions of batteries at the end of their lifetime is shifting from technical to strategic priority.
  Surprisingly, speakers underlined EU’s anticipated timeline to develop recycling plants, with a scarce input of end of life applications. According to Andreas Opelt (Saubermacher) and Verena Fuchs (Cylib), for electric vehicle batteries, the timeline for returns is uncertain; early fleets are lasting longer than expected, delaying the recycling ramp-up. Opelt concluded his presentation with a pragmatic message: “The storm of batteries is coming, but if you build capacity too early, plants will sit empty”, arguing timing is critical.

Across the EU, roughly 300,000 tonnes of batteries enter the market annually. Collection rates for household batteries account for approximately 50%. Many still end up in mixed waste streams or embedded in consumer products. Lithium-ion batteries, now almost omnipresent in common electronics, pose fire hazards during transport and processing.

Industry response

Saubermacher announced the opening of what Andreas Opel called “Europe’s most modern recycling plant” early next year. The facility will process 50,000 tonnes of batteries annually, using AI-driven sorting to achieve 99% accuracy and advanced fire protection systems.

Cylib, represented by Verena Fuchs, is scaling up its proprietary water-based recycling process, which recovers lithium and graphite with 90% efficiency and an 80% lower carbon footprint compared to conventional methods. After validating its technology through more than 35 industrial projects, the company is preparing its first large-scale plant in Germany, capable of processing feedstock equivalent to 140,000 EV batteries per year. Cylib’s approach reduces chemical use, recirculates water and produces high-purity raw materials, aiming to meet EU targets on recycled content.

“If you don’t get 99% quality in sorting, you will never get raw material purity for reuse,” Opel said, underlining the technical complexity of the task – a challenge numerous members of the Cluster Hub are currently addressing.

EU-funded R&I , collaboration and strategy

Eleonora Cali (Rina Consulting), speaking for the Materials for Batteries Hub underlined that circularity cannot be achieved in isolation – a central idea that generated the hub in the first place. Twenty minutes proved to be a challenge to deliver a presentation of each of the 24 members of the hub. The platform connects projects working on different cross-sectorial aspects of the battery value chain, from battery passports, automated dismantling, to reverse logistics and material recovery. Eleonora brought concrete examples how EU-funded projects like BATRAW, FREE4LIB, CICERO, RENOVATE, RESPECT and GR4FITE3 address these aspects hands-on.

The other cluster, titled Circular Battery, presented by Jefferson Palas (EURECAT), introduced other EU-funded initiatives: BatteReverse, RECIRCULATE, REBELION and REINFORCE, each addressing Europe’s end-of-life battery challenge. Similar to the Materials for batteries Hub, Circular Battery focuses on similar topics: standardising dismantling processes, improving safety during handling and transport, and creating digital tools like battery passports for traceability. Key innovations include automated dismantling, second-life models and protocols to reduce fire risks.

Speakers called for:

• accelerated permitting for recycling infrastructures. In China, you can build a recycling plant in six months. In Europe, six months is not even enough to submit a permit,” Opel warned.
• enforcement of design-for-recycling standards in new battery regulations.
• support for industrial scale-up through funding but also simplified regulation.
• call to impose all possible measures to prevent black mass from exiting Europe, already reinforced by its recent classification as hazardous waste.

Probably one of the messages we take with us and integrate it to our initiatives’ objectives is that policies like the EU’s Critical Raw Materials Act, Battery Regulation and now recently adopted ReSourceEU provide the framework. What is needed now is execution at speed.