The European Commission has selected 47 strategic projects to strengthen Europe’s raw materials value chain and diversify supply sources, with Estonian startup UP Catalyst among the chosen companies.
UP Catalyst’s technology converts greenhouse gas CO2 into battery-grade graphite — a critical material for lithium-ion batteries used in smartphones, electric vehicles, and other devices.
Overall, the 47 selected projects span 13 EU member states. They will receive streamlined permitting processes, easier access to funding, and coordinated support from the Commission, member states, and financial institutions.
The current selection represents a key step in implementing the EU’s Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA), which aims to ensure that European extraction, processing, and recycling of strategic raw materials will meet 10%, 40%, and 25% of EU demand respectively by 2030. Currently, most of these needs are served by China, which dominates the raw materials market along the whole value chain.
A road to European autonomy
“At the beginning of all strategic supply chains are raw materials,” said Executive Vice-President for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy Stéphane Séjourné. “They are also indispensable to the decarbonization of our continent. But Europe currently depends on third countries for many of the raw materials it needs the most.”
The selected projects cover 14 of the 17 strategic raw materials listed in the CRMA. Of particular value to the EU battery raw material value chain are projects focused on lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, and graphite.
This is where UP Catalyst shines — their technology, called Molten Salt Carbon Capture and Electrochemical Transformation (MSCC-ET), produces sustainable carbon nanomaterials and graphite from CO₂ emissions or waste biomass. The process has a carbon footprint of just 0.07 tons of CO₂ per ton of graphite—20 times lower than conventional graphite production. The company is now building its first-of-a-kind industrial production unit to scale this innovation.
Overall, new strategic projects are expected to help ensure that the EU can fully meet its 2030 extraction, processing, and recycling benchmarks for lithium and cobalt while also making progress for graphite, nickel, and manganese. Additionally, projects involving magnesium and tungsten will contribute to the resilience of the EU’s defence industry, says the Commission’s press release.
The current batch have an expected overall capital investment of €22.5B. A new call for strategic applications is planned for the end of summer 2025.
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