The MAGELLAN Project’s Rare Earth Roundtable series continued with its sixth online event on 10 July 2025, focusing on a critical and timely theme: “Financing in the European Rare Earth Ecosystem around Permanent Magnets.” As the global geopolitical landscape shifts and technological demands for critical raw materials intensify, the issue of financing Europe’s rare earth value chain – particularly the segment centred on the high-performance permanent magnets necessary for strategic applications – has never been more urgent.
The session brought together four expert speakers from across the European innovation and finance landscape: Etienne Bouyer (CEA), Massimiliano Picciani (Bpifrance), Didier Zimmermann (EIT RawMaterials), and Rosellina Di Santo (META/Horizon Results Booster). The event was moderated by Nabeel Mancheri, Senior Advisor at EIT RawMaterials, and served as both a technical and strategic exploration of the funding gap that often separates innovation from commercialisation in the rare earth magnet sector.
Setting the Stage: From Innovation to Industrialisation
Opening the session, Nabeel Mancheri welcomed participants by situating the conversation within the broader MAGELLAN Project context. MAGELLAN is a Horizon Europe initiative coordinated by Orano, with a consortium of partners working across the rare earth permanent magnet value chain – from urban mine extraction and advanced recycling to next-generation magnet and motor design.
Despite the progress made in innovation and policy alignment, a recurring challenge persists across the EU ecosystem: the “valley of death” between research-stage innovation and full industrial deployment. Funding mechanisms have historically concentrated on the early stages of R&I, while significant hurdles remain in scaling up technologies to market-ready status – particularly in high-capex sectors like rare earth recycling and magnet production. This event set out to explore how current funding mechanisms can be leveraged, adapted, or complemented to bridge this gap.
Etienne Bouyer (CEA)
Dr. Etienne Bouyer, Exploratory Programme Director and Expert Fellow at CEA (Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives), opened the technical discussions by outlining CEA’s role as one of Europe’s foremost Research and Technology Organisations (RTOs), with nearly 22,000 staff and a long-standing mission to serve the French state and economy. Its activities span low-carbon energy (both nuclear and renewables), digital technologies, future medicine, and national security, and its extensive patent portfolio and start-up generation make it a vital conduit between fundamental research and industrial application. Etienne highlighted that CEA is currently involved in over 450 European projects, participating actively across all three pillars of Horizon Europe. With capabilities spanning the full TRL spectrum – from fundamental research (TRL 1) to pilot-scale demonstration (TRL 7) – CEA plays a pivotal role in de-risking industrial innovation.
Using MAGELLAN and the national Magnolia project as case studies, Etienne illustrated how coordinated European and national funding can be mutually reinforcing. However, Etienne stressed that while Horizon Europe’s schemes are well-suited for early-stage collaboration, a critical funding gap remains when moving beyond pilot scale – especially for entities that are not start-ups. “We need instruments that also support established SMEs and large companies – not just start-ups”, he noted, advocating for stronger public-private partnerships, mixed funding schemes, and cross-border coordination between national, regional, and EU instruments.
He also urged that Europe’s next Framework Programme maintain and expand this dual-track approach, supporting both the technology base and the industrial scale-up capacities that RTOs like CEA can offer. “Our platforms are ready. The RTOs across Europe stand ready and are willing to support the industry”.
Massimiliano Picciani (Bpifrance):
Joining from Bpifrance, France’s public investment bank, Massimiliano Picciani brought a national financing perspective with EU relevance. Massimiliano currently oversees innovation projects financing within Bpifrance, in addition to serving as a National Contact Point for Horizon Europe Cluster 5. Bpifrance, as he explained, is fully state-owned and acts as both a climate bank and innovation catalyst, providing a broad spectrum of financial tools ranging from grants and loans to equity investments and consulting services. In 2024 alone, the bank channelled over €60 billion into the French economy.
Under the umbrella of France Relance (2020–2022) and France 2030 (2022–2027) programmes, Bpifrance has funded several landmark projects in the rare earth domain, including: MAGNOLIA – a collaborative project focused on magnet recycling, led by Orano, MagREEsource – a Grenoble-based deep-tech spinout working on short-loop recycling of permanent magnets, CAREMAG – an emerging actor focused on heavy rare earth (HREE) refining processes and Solvay’s La Rochelle site refurbishment – a major industrial project for light rare earth refining.
These investments span both R&D and industrialisation stages, with grant coverage of up to 30% of eligible costs and additional support via soft loans and innovation guarantees. Notably, these state-backed instruments are aligned with EU state-aid frameworks, making them compatible with European-level initiatives.
Looking forward, Massimiliano pointed to several open or upcoming calls of interest, including: The second national call for Critical Metals under France 2030, the Horizon Europe Cluster 4 calls on Technologies for critical raw materials and strategic raw materials from end-of-life products, Strategic Partnerships for Raw Materials: Innovative Approaches for sustainable production of Critical Raw Materials, and the Co-funded Partnership on Raw Materials for the Green and Digital Transition (launching in early 2026).
He emphasised that even though Bpifrance can only directly fund French entities, cross-border cooperation via consortia and European programmes is actively encouraged and increasingly strategic.
Didier Zimmermann (EIT RawMaterials):
Representing the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) RawMaterials, Didier Zimmermann offered a detailed overview of the EIT’s full-spectrum approach to ecosystem building. As Director of Business Development and Fundraising, Didier oversees programmes that range from education and start-up incubation to advanced material innovation and strategic raw materials financing.
EIT RawMaterials, he explained, operates on four strategic pillars: access to knowledge, talent, networks, and finance. With over 300 members across Europe and a portfolio of more than 800 supported start-ups, EIT RM has developed one of the continent’s most comprehensive support ecosystems for raw materials and functional materials.
Didierfocused primarily on the KAVA innovation calls, which offer up to €2.5 million per project for scaling up technologies from TRL 4–5 to TRL 7–8. Key features of these calls include: 30% co-funding requirement from the applicant consortium, strong emphasis on market readiness within two years of project completion, open participation for both established players and innovators, rigorous evaluation based on innovation quality, consortium complementarity, market access, and commercial viability.
Didier also stressed the importance of platform-based collaboration. EIT RM actively connects university researchers, industrial players, and RTOs – ensuring not only access to tools and infrastructure, but also to the human capital and commercial networks needed to scale innovation.
Beyond TRL and project funding, he introduced the audience to the ERMA (European Raw Materials Alliance) and the CRM Facility an EU initiative funded by DG INTPA and coordinated by EIT RawMaterials (jointly with INNO) to achieve the Critical Raw Materials Act Objectives.
In summary, Didier portrayed EIT RM as a “critical enabler across the full lifecycle” of raw materials innovation – from concept development and talent training to investment facilitation and strategic autonomy.
Rosellina Di Santo (META/ Horizon Results Booster)
Rosellina Di Santo, Senior Project Manager at META and appointed to the Horizon Results Booster, concluded the speaker session by outlining one of the European Commission’s most accessible and impactful support services for Horizon-funded projects. The Horizon Results Booster offers free-of-charge expert services to projects funded under Horizon Europe and other related programmes. It is designed to maximise the impact of R&I results, both in terms of dissemination and market uptake.
The Booster consists of two core service streams:
Dissemination Support: Helps refine communication strategies, enhance visibility, and optimise use of the Horizon Results Platform. Go-To-Market Support: Focused on exploitation, this stream provides targeted mentoring on key exploitable results (KERs), unique value propositions, business planning, and access to funding. Additional “add-on services” include, IP management and valuation, audiovisual production for promotional videos, public speaking coaching, networking and portfolio analysis for clustering with similar projects.
Di Santo clarified that all eligible Horizon Europe projects can benefit from the service. Once submitted, applications are typically processed and validated within 7–10 days, followed by the appointment of dedicated mentors. More than 2,000 projects have already benefitted, and the initiative will continue until 2028. Crucially, the Booster is not just a service for final reporting; it is a strategic enabler that helps projects clarify their innovation pathways, mobilise partnerships, and attract downstream investment.
Concluding Reflections: Unlocking Europe’s Magnet Value Chain through Financial Innovation
The sixth MAGELLAN Rare Earth Roundtable served as a clear reminder that technological innovation alone is not enough. In a sector as complex and geopolitically sensitive as permanent magnets, financial architecture matters – not only to fund R&D, but to sustain scale-up, industrialisation, and eventual market integration.
From Etienne Bouyer’s RTO-grounded call for stronger public-private synergies, to Massimiliano Picciani’s insights into national investment ecosystems, from Didier Zimmermann’s multi-TRL portfolio strategy, to Rosellina Di Santo’s no-cost booster services, the event highlighted a diverse but convergent set of tools that can support Europe’s ambition to regain control over its magnet value chains.
Common themes emerged across all presentations and the Q&A session:
- Bridging the TRL 6–8 gap requires bespoke funding tools, not just general research grants.
- Start-ups and large players must both be supported, ideally within collaborative frameworks.
- Cross-border coordination, especially between national agencies and EU instruments, is essential.
- Access to talent, infrastructure, and IP management must go hand-in-hand with financial support.
- Public investments must be complemented by private capital, de-risked through structured engagement with investors, off-takers, and market actors.
As Europe advances towards the objectives of the Net-Zero Industry Act and the Critical Raw Materials Act, permanent magnets will remain a strategic priority. Events like this one help translate policy ambition into practical action – offering concrete pathways for funding, collaboration, and innovation across the rare earth ecosystem.
The MAGELLAN Project thanks all speakers and participants for their contributions. The recording of the event is available on our project’s YouTube channel.
