New Funding for a Sustainable and Resilient Supply of Raw Materials: COMPASS Launched
Strengthening International Research Collaborations on Critical Raw Materials
October 13, 2026
Through the COMPASS funding initiative—“Sustainable Solutions for Critical Raw Materials through International Research Partnerships”—the BMFTR supports binational research and innovation projects. The goal is to develop new technological solutions for a secure, sustainable, and resilient supply of critical raw materials while simultaneously expanding international partnerships between academia and industry.
Critical Raw Materials as the Key to Future Technologies
Critical raw materials play a central role in future technologies, such as in the fields of renewable energy, electromobility, and digitalization. Germany and Europe are highly dependent on imports for their supply of these materials. Against this backdrop, the COMPASS initiative aims to foster technological and process innovations that reduce dependencies and enable more environmentally and climate-friendly extraction and processing of primary raw materials.
The funding initiative thus simultaneously supports the goals of the European Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) and Germany’s High-Tech Agenda.
From Exploration to Processing
Funding is provided for research and development approaches along the value chain of primary mineral raw materials. The focus is on innovations for the exploration, extraction, and processing of terrestrial raw material deposits. This also includes dissolved metals in brines; marine raw material deposits, however, are expressly excluded.
Relevant development goals include, among others:
- improved assessment of raw material deposits,
- greater resource and energy efficiency,
- improved safety, yield, and process stability,
- reducing energy and water consumption,
- reduction of CO₂ emissions and other environmental impacts,
- Development of economical and environmentally sustainable extraction processes.
The research results are intended to go well beyond the current state of the art and find their way into industrial application as quickly as possible.
International Collaboration in the 2+2 Model
A central approach of COMPASS is collaboration between academia and industry across national borders. Funding is structured according to the so-called 2+2 model: at least one research institution and one company are to be involved in both Germany and the respective partner country.
In addition, government research institutions such as the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources, as well as state-level institutions, can be involved. These collaborations are intended to accelerate the transfer of knowledge and technology, build technological expertise, and train skilled workers for the raw materials sector.
Opportunities for Companies and Research
COMPASS is aimed in particular at stakeholders who are developing technological solutions for a more sustainable raw materials economy. Expertise is sought from various disciplines, including the natural sciences, software development, mechanical engineering, sensor development, and process engineering.
Among other things, the funded projects are intended to help increase the technological maturity of existing processes, accelerate the translation of innovations into practical applications, establish international collaborations, and make research results usable—for example, through intellectual property rights, standardization, or publications.
Further calls for proposals will follow
COMPASS is structured as a framework announcement. Based on this, the BMFTR intends to publish specific calls for proposals for research and innovation projects involving international partners. The specific framework conditions and target values will be defined in the respective calls for proposals.
