ExpectedOutcome:

The European Green Deal (EGD) Communication of the European Commission is the growth strategy that aims to transform the European Union (EU) into an equal-opportunity and prosperous society, with a modern, resource-efficient and competitive economy where there are no net emissions of greenhouse gases in 2050 and in which economic growth is decoupled from resource use. It is supported by the ‘Fit for 55’ set of legislative proposals and amendments to existing EU legislation, which will help cut the EU’s net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared to the levels of 1990 and accelerate the goal of climate neutrality. The EGD Communication also states that all EU actions and policies should work towards the goal of enabling the EU to achieve a successful and just transition towards a sustainable future.

The RFCS legislation amendment package adopted on 19 July 2021 is in line with the European Commission’s objectives by enabling the research fund to tackle the sectors' climate and environmental challenges and to assist the EU's coal and steel industries to reduce their emissions, thus contributing to the EGD's goals and achieving a Just Transition towards a climate neutral economy.

To strengthen the commitment for a climate neutral future, the policy context has evolved rapidly in the last couple of years. On 18 May 2022 the Commission presented the REPowerEU, a plan to rapidly reduce the dependence on Russian fossil fuels and fast forward the green transition. The REPowerEU plan highlights that around 30% of the primary steel production in the EU is expected to be decarbonised by 2030 using renewable hydrogen. On 21 February 2023 the Council formally adopted an amending regulation to include REPowerEU chapters in the Recovery and Resilience Facility. Furthermore, to support the electricity side and address the effects of the energy prices crisis, on 14 September 2022, the Commission proposed the Emergency intervention to reduce electricity bills, notably by reducing electricity demand by 5% during peak hours, as a way to reduce gas use for power generation.

In early 2023, two additional pieces of legislation have been proposed by the Commission: the Net Zero Industry Act (NZIA) and the Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA).

The NZIA legislation has the duty to help scale up net-zero technologies manufacturing in the EU to provide at least 40% of the EU’s annual deployment needs for strategic net-zero technologies by 2030. The clean technologies covered by the NZIA, which include not only commercially available equipment, but also those soon to come into the market, need steel products, in many cases with specific characteristics, to support their deployment. Furthermore, the deployment of these technologies (especially hydrogen and renewable energy) is also key to decarbonise the steel production process itself.

Finally, the CRMA, which tackles the problem related to the dependance of Europe on critical raw materials and the consequent level of vulnerability of EU supply chain, will help to ensure that Europe will have sufficient access to those materials, like rare earths and precious metals, which are vital for manufacturing key technologies for the green transition. EU research and innovation (R&I) is key in order that net-zero technologies will use fewer resources, are more circular in their use of critical raw materials by developing innovative solutions for their recycling, substitution and reuse of critical raw materials. In this context, the circularity of steel and the recovery of rare earths and elements other than iron can be very important.

The RFCS complements the activities carried out in the Member States and within the existing Union Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration. Therefore, the European Commission encourages complementarity and sequencing among research programmes and supports the exchange of information between the RFCS Programme and projects financed under national and other European financial instruments for research and innovation, including Horizon Europe, cohesion policy funds (in particular European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and Just Transition Fund (JTF)), the Innovation Fund (IF) and the European LIFE programme.

Objective:

The RFCS Research Programme (Council Decision (EU) 2021/1094) has the following research objectives for the Steel sector:

• New, sustainable and low-carbon steelmaking and finishing processes (Art. 8);
• Advanced steel grades and applications (Art. 9);
• Conservation of resources, protection of the environment and circular economy (Art. 10);
• Management of work force and working conditions (Art. 10a).

The call objectives are:

1. CO2 neutral iron ore reduction (Increasing the use of pre-reduced iron carriers;
2. CO2 neutral iron ore reduction (Increasing the use of pre-reduced iron carriers);
3. Technologies to improve energy efficiency, increase heat recovery and enhance Process Integration (PI) approaches in steel production;
4. Advanced steel alloys for special applications;
5. Circular economy and sector coupling solutions to meet the zero-waste goal for steelmaking;
6. Preparation of steel CO/CO2 gases for Carbon Capture Use and Storage (CCUS).

Scope:

Applicants may submit proposals for either Pilot or Demonstration projects (see Art. 15 and Art. 16 of Council Decision 2008/376/EC).

Proposals shall be in line with Council Decision (EU) 2021/1094.

Proposals shall be in line with the general and specific objectives listed in the Memorandum of Understanding for the European partnership on Clean Steel launched in Horizon Europe.

Proposals need to show in the excellence and/or impact part of the application form how they contribute to the multi-annual SRIA of the Clean Steel Partnership.

Proposals shall address the application of innovative technologies related to one or two of the six call objectives listed below. If addressing two call objectives, proposals should clearly identify which Work Packages address what area(s) of what call objective(s).

Research activities focused on validating and demonstrating technologies and processes have to be considered in agreement with the needs of the selected TRL levels, which are expected to start at TRL 4-5 and achieve TRL 7-8 by the end of the project.

Targeted improvements (compared to the existing installation or, for new projects, to the relevant ETS benchmark) shall be clearly quantified and demonstrated with energy system and materials balance assessments (including emissions) clearly defined by the applicants. This requirement applies to all the call objectives, with the exception of objective 1.

Collaborations with start-ups and SMEs are encouraged.

When addressing the call objectives, proposals should pay particular attention, when relevant, to what is reported in the Art. 10a of the RFCS Decision 2021/1094 and, more precisely, include activities to address potential solutions that can improve the working conditions of employees at steelmaking facilities, in particular health, safety and ergonomics in and around the workplace.

Expected Impact:

Proposals shall demonstrate direct relevance to contribute to achieving the European Green Deal goals and the full decarbonisation process of the steel sector towards climate neutrality.

Proposals are expected to include an exploitation strategy outlining possible integration of the outcomes of the project (including the pilot/demonstrators) in an industrial environment.