RELiEF Partners Come Together for Final Meeting
Ninove, Belgium, 17-19 November 2025
From 17 to 19 November 2025, partners of the EU-funded RELiEF project gathered at the Avesta Headquarters in Ninove, Belgium, for their final meeting after almost three and a half years of collaborative research and innovation aimed at advancing sustainable lithium recovery and circular battery value chains.
Reflecting on Achievements and Progress
The meeting opened with a warm welcome and an overview of the project’s major achievements, results, and challenges. Over the three days, partners presented final updates across all nine work packages, highlighting their collective efforts toward developing efficient, environmentally friendly processes for lithium extraction and battery material recovery.
The first day focused on technical progress, featuring presentations on material sourcing, effective leaching (NOVA), selective recovery and purification of lithium (LUT), battery material closed-loop systems (IMNR), and material validation and process demonstration (ZSW).
Strategic Outlook and Exploitation
On the second day, discussions shifted toward sustainability, business modelling, and exploitation strategies. INEGI presented the sustainability assessment and business modelling results, while TechConcepts, EURICE, and ABEE jointly moderated a Results & Exploitation Workshop, that provided a platform to discuss how RELiEF’s outcomes can support future industrial and commercial applications within Europe’s raw materials and battery ecosystem.
The day concluded with a reception and networking dinner to celebrate the project’s milestones.
Final Review Meeting with the European Commission
The final day hosted the official review meeting with representatives from CINEA, the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency. Each partner delivered presentations, summarising the work that had been done in the past three and a half years, milestones, and project impacts. The review reaffirmed RELiEF’s contribution to advancing efficient lithium recovery technologies, improved process sustainability, and innovative exploitation pathways aligned with the European Green Deal and the EU’s strategic autonomy in raw materials.
The meeting concluded with closing remarks from the European Commission Project Officer and a visit to ABEE’s facilities, showcasing the tangible outcomes of the project’s collaborative research through RELiEF’s demonstrator.
In the coming weeks, the RELiEF partners will continue to work on a successful completion of the project and its readiness to inspire future research and industrial deployment.
