ERA-MIN3: Raw Materials for the Sustainable Development and the Circular Economy (2020-2025) is a global, innovative and flexible pan-European network of 25 research funding organisations, supported by EU Horizon 2020, that aims to support and promote R&I cooperation in Europe and globally, in the area of non-fuel, non-food raw materials (metallic, construction and industrial minerals). ERA-MIN3 is built on the success of ERA-MIN 2 (2016-2022) and ERA-MIN (2011-2015) that aimed to implement a European-wide coordination of research and innovation programmes on raw materials to strengthen the industry competitiveness and the shift to a circular economy. All these goals were achieved through seven Joint Transnational Calls which were bottom-up and small-scale thus complementing the large EU projects and reducing the fragmentation of national/regional funding.
A total of 79 transnational R&I projects addressed needs-driven research and clearly demonstrated potential to promote the sustainable and responsible supply, exploration, extraction, processing technologies, resource efficient production, and low environmental impact recycling of primary and secondary minerals and metals, as well as substitution of critical raw materials, in a circular economy, in line with the ERA-MIN Research Agenda and the Strategic Implementation Plan of the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on Raw Materials and other raw materials EU policies.