Brussels, May 2026 – A key sequence of discussions on Europe’s critical raw materials agenda will be held in Brussels, bringing renewed attention to the role of permanent magnets in industrial competitiveness and strategic autonomy. Europe currently relies on China for 98% of its rare earth element (REE) magnets. While global demand for Neodymium-Iron-Boron (Nd-Fe-B) magnets is soaring, China is increasingly tightening export restrictions on these critical materials. This dependency places Europe’s green transition at significant risk, as these magnets are indispensable to wind turbines, electric vehicles, and countless other strategic technologies.

The challenge is not only one of supply. Although technical expertise exists across the continent, only 1% of rare earth metals are currently recycled in Europe. This underlines a critical gap between Europe’s technological know-how and its capacity to recover, process and reuse rare earth magnets at scale, with direct implications for supply chain resilience, circular manufacturing and regional innovation.

Against this background, SICAPERMA (Sustainable Innovation Investment Catapult for Permanent Magnets), a flagship project co-funded by the European Union through the Interregional Innovation Investments (I3) instrument, has been designed to address this strategic gap. The project is developing a technology-based circular value chain for Nd-Fe-B recycling, a critical industrial capability that Europe currently lacks, by mobilising uncovered technological capacities in Less Developed Regions and connecting them with more advanced industrial territories.

Through demonstration pilots and value chain structuring, SICAPERMA brings together research organisations, technology providers, SMEs, industrial end users and regional innovation stakeholders across Europe. This collaboration aims to move beyond isolated technical advances by aligning regional capabilities, industrial needs and market-oriented pathways so that circular permanent magnet solutions can be deployed on a European scale.

A strategic consortium meeting at EISMEA

On 18 May, the 14 SICAPERMA partners will gather at the premises of EISMEA, the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency, in Brussels. This strategic review of the project’s technical progress comes at a time when Europe’s Critical Raw Materials Act is placing greater emphasis on domestic capacities, recycling and supply chain resilience.

This will be the project’s third in-person consortium meeting serving as a decisive checkpoint for consolidating achievements so far, identifying the next implementation priorities, and ensuring that the project’s results support Europe’s long-term agenda for raw materials and industrial competitiveness.

During the meeting, the partners will focus on SICAPERMA’s three core demonstration pathways: the multi-stream dismantling and processing of permanent magnets; the production of sintered and bonded magnets from recycled materials; and the integration of recycled permanent magnets into strategic applications, such as motors and sensors. The consortium will also address value chain structuring, interregional deployment and outreach, paying particular attention to replicating circular capabilities in less developed regions and among SMEs.

Bridging circular value chains for permanent magnets

On 19 May, SICAPERMA will open the discussion beyond the consortium with its event, “Bridging Circular Value Chains for Permanent Magnets”, taking place at the University Foundation in a hybrid format.

The event aims to strengthen cooperation on sustainable rare earth and permanent magnet value chains by bringing together European policymakers, industry leaders, researchers, regional innovation stakeholders and EU-funded projects. Organised within the framework of SICAPERMA, the event will provide a platform to connect initiatives that share the same objective of helping Europe transition from strategic dependency to circular capability.

The programme will offer a strategic overview of the European Critical Raw Materials landscape, showcase a variety of projects, and facilitate discussions on the conditions needed to scale circular value chains. The afternoon sessions will focus on capacity building, including the dismantling and pre-processing of magnet-containing products, as well as innovative magnet production and end-use applications across the automotive, wind energy, and electronics sectors, through a joint workshop with PERMANET project.