Tips & Tricks for a successful HORIZON-CL5-2027-02-D2-05 proposal
Opening
03 December 2026
Deadline
Keywords
Cluster 5
battery recycling
Batt4EU partnership
black mass processing
recycling processes
hydrometallurgy
EU Batteries Regulation
Adaptability
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HORIZON-CL5-2027-02-D2-05: Improvement of Adaptability, Flexibility and Efficiency of Existing Recycling Processes (BATT4EU Partnership)
Why can the same recycling conditions behave differently when the battery feedstock changes?
Changing the feed changes more than the proportions of valuable metals: it can also change the reactions used to recover them. In laboratory sulfuric-acid leaching experiments on nickel–manganese–cobalt battery black mass, copper and aluminium acted as reducing agents that helped dissolve cathode metals. Copper’s effectiveness depended on dissolved iron, while aluminium’s contribution increased at higher temperatures. [1] This dependence on feed composition illustrates the challenge addressed by HORIZON-CL5-2027-02-D2-05, “Improvement of Adaptability, Flexibility and Efficiency of Existing Recycling Processes (BATT4EU Partnership)”: improving existing processes to handle variable production scrap and mixed lithium-ion batteries while recovering high-purity materials suitable for battery manufacturing.
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Administrative facts: what do we know about the HORIZON-CL5-2027-02-D2-05 call?
Which call is it, and when is the opening and the deadline?
- Call name: BATTERIES and ENERGY
- Call identifier: HORIZON-CL5-2027-02
- Destination: Cross-sectoral solutions for the climate transition (Destination 2)
- Topic: HORIZON-CL5-2027-02-D2-05
- Opening date: 03 December 2026
- Deadline: 31 March 2027, 17:00 Brussels time
- Type of action: Innovation Action
What about the budget and estimated size of the project?
- Topic budget: EUR 18.80 million
- Number of projects: 2
- Budget per project: around EUR 9.40 million
What are the key eligibility and evaluation conditions?
- General Annex B conditions apply
- TRL 6 to 7 expected at project end; activities may start at any TRL
- JRC may join as a zero-funding beneficiary or associated partner, but not in proposal preparation
- Copernicus and/or Galileo/EGNOS mandatory if satellite or positioning data are used
- The granting authority may object to transfer of ownership or exclusive licensing of results, up to 4 years after the action ends
- Batt4EU partnership: KPI reporting required
Scientific range: what does the Commission expect from the HORIZON-CL5-2027-02-D2-05 grant?
What outcomes are expected?
By the end, an existing process should handle feedstock it previously could not, at better cost and recovery. The Commission is after demonstrated compliance with EU Batteries Regulation targets, not a projection of it. Reduced dependence on imported raw materials is the political payoff, so make it visible.
What is within scope?
- Technologies handling variable composition feedstocks, potentially within the same batch
- Production scrap and mixed lithium-ion chemistries as priority inputs
- Black mass processing recovering high-purity battery-grade materials
- Hydrometallurgical and/or pyrometallurgical optimisation for critical raw material recovery
- Digitalised sorting and advanced pre-treatment where needed
- Techno-economic assessment and life-cycle assessment, both required
Not a call for brand new recycling concepts. Already scaled processes are the starting point.
What are the specifically proposed research directions?
- Recovery efficiencies at or above Batteries Regulation requirements, measured not modelled
- Energy efficiency, CO2 and footprint reduction, quantified through LCA
- Safe and Sustainable by Design as an assessment reference
- Recovered materials fed back into European cell manufacturing
The work programme stays vague on which chemistries matter most. That vagueness gives you room. Our reading: LFP is the case everyone struggles with economically, and sodium-ion is coming.
Scientific strategy: how can you enhance your chances of being funded through HORIZON-CL5-2027-02-D2-05?
What scientific choices matter most?
- Start from a real line, not a lab flowsheet. Evaluators want the process you are improving, named and characterised.
- Quantify feedstock variability. Show composition ranges, then what your process does at both ends.
- Make the TEA and the LCA load-bearing. We see this a lot: bolted on in the last work package. They should drive design from month one.
- Get purity specifications from an actual cell manufacturer.
- Show your monitoring and control strategy. Adaptability means reacting to input changes, and you cannot react to what you never measure.
Consortium & proposal-writing plan: what works best with this type of call?
- Somewhere between eight and thirteen partners, a couple more if you cover several chemistries. An IA at this budget rarely works with fewer.
- A recycler with an operating plant is non-negotiable. Without one, the “existing processes” framing collapses.
- Cell or material manufacturer at the other end, closing the loop on purity.
- Innovative SMEs usually bring the process analytics and sensing that large operators never develop in-house. Build one or two into the core, not as subcontractors.
- If you want the JRC involved, contact them early. Same information goes to everyone, so waiting buys nothing.
- Write the exploitation plan like a business plan. The call names the Innovation Fund. Take the hint.
- Keep the impact section tied to European raw material dependence. That argument travels.
How should an extraction step be validated within an existing recycling process?
Start with the leachate produced by the existing recycling route. Experiments on simulated battery leachate showed that solvent composition, equilibrium pH and the organic-to-aqueous phase ratio influenced metal extraction. [2] Validation should cover the composition range of the intended process liquids, with a baseline measured under the current operating conditions.
Assess both target-metal recovery and the transfer of unwanted metals. Include phase disengagement, solvent carryover, solids formation and stability during solvent reuse in the test plan. Analyse the separated streams and close the metal mass balances so that an apparent improvement in extraction does not conceal losses elsewhere.
Before integration into an existing line, assess throughput, chemical compatibility and the requirements of upstream leaching and downstream purification. Compare reagent consumption, energy demand, waste generation and recovered-material quality with the baseline. The intended output is a validated operating range showing which conditions remain effective as feed composition changes, together with the adjustments needed for integration.
The MIC already brings its expertise in microfluidics to Horizon Europe:
H2020-NMBP-TR-IND-2020
Microfluidic platform to study the interaction of cancer cells with lymphatic tissue
H2020-LC-GD-2020-3
Toxicology assessment of pharmaceutical products on a placenta-on-chip model
About the author
Céleste Chidiac, PhD
Scientific writer and digital marketing specialist
Céleste Chidiac holds a doctorate in neuroscience and molecular biology from the University of Strasbourg. Since joining the Microfluidics Innovation Center in 2023, she has combined scientific writing with website management. For MIC’s Horizon Europe topic pages, she draws on her research background to explain scientific challenges and clarify funding priorities. Her writing helps prospective applicants understand each topic’s scope, expected outcomes and research directions.
FAQ – HORIZON-CL5-2027-02-D2-05
These questions examine feedstock characterisation, separation chemistry and the interpretation of recycling results.
What is the difference between black mass and battery leachate?
Black mass is a solid fraction containing electrode materials and residual components from battery processing. Leachate is the liquid containing metals dissolved during chemical treatment. Their compositions describe different stages: analysing a leachate alone does not establish how much metal remains in the solid residue. [1]
Why is cathode chemistry alone insufficient to characterise a recycling feed?
Cell construction, electrode coatings, binders and current collectors also matter. In mechanical recycling experiments across different automotive cell types, black mass yield and copper and aluminium contamination varied with cell type. Feedstock characterisation should therefore describe physical construction and processing history alongside cathode chemistry. [3]
Can one sample represent a heterogeneous batch of black mass?
A single sample may miss important variation. Partinen and colleagues observed substantial variation in copper and iron content between samples of their black mass. [1] A useful sampling plan takes increments across the batch, prepares representative composite samples and reports replicate analyses and their variability.
Does a high leaching yield demonstrate high overall metal recovery?
No. Leaching yield describes the fraction dissolved at that stage. Overall recovery must also account for earlier separation losses and later purification, precipitation and handling losses. Define the process boundary and follow each target metal through products, liquids and residues before comparing complete recycling routes.
How does extraction efficiency differ from selectivity?
Extraction efficiency measures how much of a metal transfers between phases. Selectivity describes how effectively one metal is separated from another. High extraction of several metals together can therefore give high efficiency with limited separation. Multicomponent extraction experiments and modelling illustrate why both quantities matter. [2]
Why does equilibrium pH matter in solvent extraction?
For acidic extractants such as Cyanex 272, pH affects metal transfer into the organic phase and the separation between metals. Experiments with simulated battery leachate showed that extraction depended on pH and solvent composition. [2] Compare equilibrium pH after contact, alongside phase ratio, temperature and feed composition.
What can tests with synthetic battery leachates establish?
They can isolate the effects of known metal concentrations and operating conditions. Lu and colleagues used simulated leachate to test and fit an extraction-equilibrium model, whose stated limits excluded precipitation and gelation. [2] Treat such results as a basis for subsequent trials with representative real process liquids.
What should a feedstock-changeover trial measure?
Follow the transition as well as the final steady state. Useful measurements include feed composition, throughput, reagent consumption, product composition, recovery and time needed to regain the target operating conditions. Record material held inside the process and any off-specification output so that temporary losses remain visible.
How should the suitability of recovered battery materials be assessed?
Assess the recovered salt or precursor against specifications agreed with its intended user. Include composition, relevant impurities and any required physical properties. Where the material will enter electrode production, plan appropriate manufacturing and electrochemical checks with the downstream partner; a purity percentage alone is an incomplete validation plan.
How can process comparisons avoid hiding downstream burdens?
Use consistent system boundaries, feed descriptions and product specifications. Alongside impacts per amount of feed treated, compare energy, chemicals, water and waste per amount of recovered material meeting the intended specification. Include additional purification, effluent treatment and material losses when assessing a proposed process improvement.
References
[1] Partinen, J., Halli, P., Varonen, A., Wilson, B. P., & Lundström, M. (2024). Investigating battery black mass leaching performance as a function of process parameters by combining leaching experiments and regression modeling. Minerals Engineering, 215, 108828. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mineng.2024.108828
[2] Lu, J., Li, W., Stevens, G. W., & Mumford, K. A. (2024). Multicomponent solvent extraction modelling of lithium, cobalt, nickel, and manganese from simulated black mass leachate. Separation and Purification Technology, 335, 126181. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seppur.2023.126181
[3] Wilke, C., Kaas, A., & Peuker, U. A. (2024). Influence of the cell type on yield and composition of black mass deriving from a mechanical recycling process of automotive Lithium-ion batteries. Next Sustainability, 4, 100050. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nxsust.2024.100050