The project REEsilience is funded by the European Union’s research and innovation programme Horizon Europe (GA No. 101058598) and coordinated by the Institute for Precious Metals and Technology (STI) of Pforzheim University, Germany and will last until June 2026. The consortium comprises 16 project partners and two associated partners from ten European countries (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom).
REEsilience aims to create new market opportunities for critical raw materials sustainably produced in Europe by developing digitised, resource-efficient and resilient Rare Earth supply chains to produce strong Permanent Magnets needed by the e-mobility, renewable energy and other strategic sectors.
Its innovative and holistic approach directly links raw materials producers and end users. Furthermore, it creates new circular business models with a convincing and quantified socio-economic impact by increasing Europe's raw materials supply capability and providing high value-added and more sustainable products with enhanced functional properties.
REEsilience will categorise RE for geographic locations, quantities, chemical composition, ethical and sustainable indicators, ramp-up scenarios, and pricing, considering all value streams from virgin to secondary material.
It will build a production system that ensures a resilient and sustainable supply chain for RE as critical raw materials for e-mobility, renewable energy and further strategic sectors in Europe with fewer dependencies on non-European economies.
A newly developed software tool will determine optimum mixing ratios to ensure consistently high product quality with maximum secondary materials for high-tech applications.
Combined with new and improved technologies for alloy production and powder preparation, especially of secondary materials, the yield and stability of processes will be further enhanced, allowing further augmentation of the proportion of secondary materials in RE PM production, reducing at the same time waste, environmental damage, and consumption of energy linked with virgin production.
REEsilience is structured into 7 work packages (WPs). WP1 is creating a map of virgin and secondary REE sources. Combined with the demand analysis, this will flow into a detailed system dynamics model of RE availability and build a multi-criteria software tool for optimal production of alloy composition. WP2 conducts a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the material flows to define alloy compositions for the targeted applications and produces the powders for WP3. WP3 then sets up the fully automated powder and magnet production. WP4 designs optimised recycling capabilities by increasing traceability in the supply chain and a new method for scrap valorisation. The information from all WPs and manufactured products will be used for the dissemination activities in WP5. WP5 is also dedicated to refining the exploitation strategies for the project results. WP6 is dedicated to reaching a broad audience. It will contribute to greater society’s acceptance of improved secondary source utilisation and automated RE magnet production. WP7 will ensure the efficient coordination of the project through effective administration, organisation and monitoring of its technical, administrative and financial components, including a robust monitoring process ensuring clear communication inside the consortium.
