From research to industrial momentum: PASSENGER’s legacy and the role of the CRMs4EU cluster

The final conference of the PASSENGER project, held on 29–30 October 2025 at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, marked much more than the conclusion of a successful Horizon 2020 initiative. Co-organised with EIT RawMaterials and embedded in the Strategic Impact Group Network (SIGN) event, the two-day gathering brought together over 150 representatives from across the European rare earth and magnet ecosystem (from industry leaders and researchers to policymakers) to shape the future of a resilient, competitive and sustainable value chain in Europe.

For the PERMANET community, the event represented a pivotal moment: a concrete demonstration that Europe is moving from vision to implementation in the field of permanent magnets, and that collaboration between projects is the real accelerator of this transition.

A shared European urgency

Permanent magnets are essential components for electric mobility, energy-efficient motors and many strategic clean-tech applications. Yet Europe still depends almost entirely on imports for rare-earth-based magnets, exposing its industry to geopolitical risks and market volatility.

The discussions in Stuttgart clearly highlighted the need to turn political ambition into industrial reality through:

• strong policy frameworks such as the Critical Raw Materials Act
• coordinated investments along the value chain
• strategic international partnerships
• skills and talent development.

This systemic perspective perfectly resonates with PERMANET’s mission: building a connected European ecosystem able to translate innovation into scalable, circular and sustainable magnet production.

CRMs4EU: a cluster shaping the future and a strategic space for PERMANET

One of the most important legacies of PASSENGER is the creation of the CRMs4EU cluster, which already brings together 17 EU-funded projects working on complementary solutions for critical raw materials and permanent magnets.

This is where the conference becomes particularly relevant for PERMANET.

The dedicated cluster session showed how:

• projects are aligning their research roadmaps
• synergies are emerging across the entire value chain
• joint dissemination and stakeholder engagement are strengthening Europe’s global positioning.

For PERMANET, this collaborative environment is not just a networking opportunity, it is a strategic platform to:

• connect innovation communities
• amplify impact through coordinated communication and knowledge sharing
• support the market uptake of sustainable magnet technologies
• contribute to a truly circular and resilient European ecosystem.

In other words, the cluster transforms individual project results into a collective European capacity.

From project results to market adoption

A key message from Stuttgart was clear: Europe’s window of opportunity is narrow, but the willingness to act is strong.

The transition from research to industrial deployment will depend on the ability to:

• keep projects connected beyond their lifetime
• engage investors and industrial players
• align innovation with regulatory frameworks
• communicate a coherent European narrative on critical raw materials.

This is precisely where PERMANET plays a crucial role, as a facilitator of dialogue, a multiplier of impact and a bridge between technological excellence and market reality.

A common path forward

PASSENGER has demonstrated that sustainable, rare-earth-free magnets are no longer a distant vision but a concrete European solution. The final conference confirmed that the ecosystem is in motion, coordinated, ambitious and increasingly mature.

For PERMANET, the message is both inspiring and operational:
Europe already has the knowledge, the technologies and the partnerships. The next step is to keep them connected, visible and aligned toward a shared industrial future.

Because strategic autonomy in permanent magnets will not be achieved by single projects, but by a strong, collaborative and well-communicated European community.