EU and India Fund EV Battery Recycling with €15.2 Million: Here’s the Horizon Europe Call
The EU and India have launched a €15.2 million call to develop advanced recycling technologies for electric vehicle batteries. This initiative stems from the Working Group 2 on Green and Clean Energy Technologies of the EU-India Trade and Technology Council (TTC) and is realized through the call HORIZON-CL5-2026-09-D2-04, jointly funded by the Horizon Europe program and the Indian Ministry of Heavy Industries.
The fund is divided into approximately €9.4 million European share and an equivalent Indian component, aiming to finance a single large project that reaches a technology readiness level of 7-8. The deadline for submitting proposals is set for September 15. This is the third coordinated call under the TTC, built on the experience of the India-EU startup exchange program on battery recycling from 2024.
The technical focus of the call is to create a joint EU-India pilot recycling line, operating in Indian territory, capable of processing black mass and recovering lithium with purity suitable for the production of active cathode material, graphite, and silicon/graphite in various compositions. India is expected to generate 128 GWh of recyclable battery capacity by 2030: transforming that volume of waste into high-purity secondary raw materials is precisely the strategic goal of the initiative, described by promoters as the construction of a "virtual mine".
Proposals must address four macro-areas: high recovery rates, management of mixed chemicals, logistics and inclusion (with integration of informal collectors and unregistered micro-enterprises already managing part of the battery waste in India), and safety and second life. Technologies for digitalized collection, sorting, and safe deactivation of end-of-life batteries are also required.
Who Can Participate and the Regulatory Context
The call is open to companies, SMEs, startups, research centers, universities, and organizations from both regions. Proposals must align with the EU Battery Regulation and the 2022 Indian regulations on battery waste management, as well as with the BATT4EU program, the digital battery passport, and the European framework Safe and Sustainable by Design. European consortia must identify and coordinate with their Indian counterparts.
The timing is not coincidental. As noted by the EU Delegation in India, mining security is increasingly a topic of industrial policy: lithium, graphite, and cobalt are classified as critical raw materials both by Brussels and New Delhi. With patents on battery recycling having increased by 42% annually and China consolidating its lead throughout the supply chain, bilateral collaboration aims to build a scalable industrial alternative before the market definitively consolidates on non-European standards and processes.