RESPECT at the Battery Innovation Days

The RESPECT project was present at the Battery Innovation Days 2025, which took place in Graz from 2 to 3 December 2025, as part of the Cluster Hub Materials for Batteries.

The project was showcased in the Cluster Hub booth, where stakeholders had the opportunity to learn more about the carried out under RESPECT and its outcomes, bringing closer researchers and industry. Moreover, the Cluster Hub also took the stage for one of the sessions, contributing to the discussion about the strategic role of recycling in the EU Battery Regulation and the broader circular economy. 

Presentations explained Europe’s alternatives to build a circular battery ecosystem. With electric mobility accelerating and battery demand soaring, recycling is no longer optional. It has become a strategic necessity for Europe’s competitiveness and climate goals. And the EU wasted no time to announce on 3 December its recent ReSourceEU Action Plan, under the headline “Accelerating our critical raw materials strategy to adapt to a new reality”. ReSourceEU places circularity at the core of EU’s approach to set the basis for competitive CRMs industry in Europe.

Eleonora Cali (Rina Consulting), speaking for the Materials for Batteries Hub underlined that circularity cannot be achieved in isolation – a central idea that generated the hub in the first place. Twenty minutes proved to be a challenge to deliver a presentation of each of the 24 members of the hub. The platform connects projects working on different cross-sectorial aspects of the battery value chain, from battery passports, automated dismantling, to reverse logistics and material recovery. Eleonora brought concrete examples how EU-funded projects like BATRAW, FREE4LIB, CICERO, RENOVATE, RESPECT and GR4FITE3 address these aspects hands-on.