EIC ELMs portfolio gives feedback on the European Advanced Materials Act
The Advanced Materials Act will put forward measures to achieve open strategic autonomy on advanced materials, which provide the innovative solutions needed for a more efficient, sustainable and competitive industry. This will help reduce dependencies on critical resources and boost EU competitiveness.
Input from EIC Engineered Living Materials (ELM) Portfolio Projects: REMEDY, Bio-HhOST, BIOACTION, Fungateria, LoopOfFun, ISOSSUMO The EIC Engineered Living Materials (ELMs) portfolio comprises 10 collaborative projects, bringing together a broad network of partners across Europe, including leading universities, research institutes, and SMEs, and collectively covering the comprehensive European research and innovation landscape in the ELMs field.
ELMs represent a rapidly emerging class of advanced materials with transformative potential across various sectors, including health, manufacturing, energy, construction, and the environment, thanks to their distinctive properties such as sensing, responsiveness, adaptability, and self-repair.
By incorporating living cells, ELMs represent a fundamental change in how materials are produced and the functions they can perform, with the potential to decrease costs and environmental impact. To fully unlock this potential, specific actions are essential to reinforce Europes research and innovation ecosystem, industrial scale-up pathways, investment framework, and regulatory preparedness.
The EIC ELM portfolio strongly supports the objectives of the proposed Advanced Materials Act and welcomes the Commissions ambition to accelerate the development, production, and uptake of advanced materials across the EU. The EIC Engineered Living Materials portfolio recommends that the Act:
- Supports full-cycle innovation from research to market
- Reinforces shared infrastructures and interdisciplinary knowledge and skills Establishes dedicated early-stage investment mechanisms
- Stimulates industrial uptake through procurement and standards
- Embeds environmental sustainability across value chains
- Accelerates time to market through regulatory sandboxes and guidance
- Strengthens monitoring of emerging advanced materials technologies with a rapid response mechanism to emerging social needs.
- Translates into the specific needs of European healthcare systems, where the industrial healthcare sector must respond.
With these measures, Europe can significantly reduce time to market, reinforce open strategic autonomy, and lead globally in next-generation advanced materials. More detailed feedback supported with key recommendations is provided in the attached document.
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