The transition towards climate-neutral steel production and circular economy is not only based on technological innovation but also on a socio-economic approach. The Clean Steel Partnership’s mission is a steel industry driven proactive adjustment of the future skills based on demands developed by the industry and for the industry.

In June 2021, ESTEP and the European Commission signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) of the Clean Steel Co-Programmed Partnership to be implemented as part of the Horizon Europe Programme for research and innovation together with a dozen of other co-programmed partnerships.The MoU expresses the intention of the European Commission and the ESTEP members to achieve climate neutrality and their engagement to reach the goals of the European Green Deal.

The general objective of the CSP is to develop technologies at a high readiness level (TRL8) to reduce the CO2 emissions stemming from EU steel production by 80-95% compared to 1990 levels by 2050, ultimately leading to climate neutrality, preserving the competitiveness and viability of the EU steel industry, making sure that EU production will be able to meet the growing EU demand for steel products.

The European steel industry is on the verge of a great transformation to become climate neutral and circular by 2050. The Clean Steel Partnership Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) document describes in detail the Partnership’s collaborative approach to delivering the technological and socio-economic innovation that is essential to its changeover.

In the SRIA, the ESTEP community outlines the research and innovation needed to enable a climate neutral, circular and competitive steel industry in 2050. In the period 2018-2020, the ESTEP community has worked together to develop this document with regular interaction with the European Commission and other stakeholders. It outlines its vision for securing one of the most important EU strategic value chains with less dependence on fossil industry and feedstock, a smart usage of resources and the realisation of a circular economy model. In 2024, mid-term of the 2021-2027 CSP, the ESTEP community carried out a thorough update of the SRIA which takes into account the most recent developments in European policies and technologies, in particular digitalization.

The funding of the CSP is a unique setting due to synergies between two public financial pillars, the Horizon Europe (HEU) programme and the Research Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS), and the private steel sector.  The HEU and RFCS budgets together amount to EUR 700 mln over the period 2021-2027, at least matched by the steel sector, expected EUR 1000 mln.

Research and Innovation (R&I) projects of the CSP are aligned with major areas of intervention (AoI):

·        Carbon Direct Avoidance (CDA)

·        Smart Carbon Usage (SCU)         

o Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (SCU-CCUS)

o Process Integration (SCU-PI)

·        Circular Economy (CE)

and an overarching and enabling area covering Digitalization and Social Innovation.

Twelve technological building blocks (BBs) are available for composing the R&I objectives of the projects. A three-stage approach has been adopted along the 2021-2027 timeline, including 2 sets of 2 demonstrator projects, showing CO2 emission reduction potential of at least 50% and 80%, respectively.