Roadmaps Are an Official Part of the Implementation of the National Raw Materials Strategy

In a letter to the House of Representatives, Ministers Heleen Herbert (Economic Affairs and Climate), Stientje van Veldhoven (Climate and Green Growth), Sjoerd Sjoerdsma (Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation), and Dilan Yeşilgöz (Defense) officially published the seven roadmaps for circularity and resilience in the manufacturing industry earlier this month. Batteries, critical materials, offshore wind, climate control systems, electrolysers, and solar power systems—along with military ships—will thus have a permanent place in the implementation of the National Raw Materials Strategy. In addition to the roadmaps, the cabinet also adopted the first Dutch Critical Raw Materials List, comprising seventeen raw materials for which the supply chain poses a high risk.

The publication marks a turning point. Whereas the roadmaps have thus far primarily been a collaborative development process involving companies, research institutions, and the government, they will now serve as the basis for concrete implementation. The Product Teams will continue to develop action plans in the coming period, and the first step toward implementation has already been taken: for several product groups, consortia of companies are now collaborating on key projects, with follow-up activities to be further defined in the coming months.

Circonnect facilitated the process behind all seven roadmaps, from the initial vision development to the action plan. This was done using a standardized methodology that is the same for every product group: scope definition, vision and support, impacts and goals, and ultimately a broadly supported project portfolio. This recognizable structure makes the roadmaps comparable to one another, even though the sectors differ greatly in nature. Expert and stakeholder sessions were a key component of this process: they enriched the content, motivated parties to take matters into their own hands, and laid the foundation for the implementation that will now follow.

The route maps

The battery roadmap positions the sector as a key technology for the energy and mobility transition, while the Netherlands remains heavily dependent on foreign raw materials, cells, and refining capacity. The roadmap therefore combines new sustainable battery chemistry, lifespan extension, and high-quality recycling. The most important design breakthrough is that circularity is incorporated as early as the design phase, through “recycle-by-design” and the use of non-critical materials, combined with business models based on total cost of ownership.

The Netherlands lacks virtually any reserves of primary raw materials for critical materials. The roadmap therefore focuses entirely on the recovery, processing, and refining of secondary streams, as illustrated by two initial case studies: permanent magnets and solar panels. The breakthrough lies in thinking in terms of the entire supply chain architecture, from collection to refining and reuse as raw materials.

In recent years, offshore wind has primarily focused on costs and project-level considerations. The roadmap outlines the next step: a systemic shift toward circularity, quality, and security of supply, with material use, design choices, standardization, return systems, and transparency forming a single, cohesive approach. Components such as magnets and cables, in particular, contain critical materials, which directly impacts design choices. Circular design of cables, modular design of magnets, and standardization at multiple levels are the priority areas for solutions.

For HVAC systems, the roadmap centers on the major challenge of making the built environment more sustainable, where these systems account for a large share of a building’s environmental impact. The roadmap adopts a broader approach at the product, system, and building levels, combining “installation-light” construction with circular product design: fewer and simpler systems wherever possible, and where they are necessary, systems designed to be modular and detachable. For components such as air ducts, work is also underway to develop a new return system and an associated revenue model for manufacturers, installers, and supply chain partners.

Electrolyzers represent a young but strategically crucial sector, in which circularity is not yet a given. The roadmap aims to strengthen the manufacturing industry’s profitability, reduce dependence on scarce raw materials, and lower environmental impact, as embodied in resilient designs: avoiding PFAS, reducing or replacing iridium and platinum, and working toward PGM-free, highly efficient electrolysers with longer service lives.

According to the roadmap, solar power systems are still in a relatively early phase of market development in terms of circularity. The roadmap therefore places a strong emphasis on knowledge development, market development, and targeted interventions, using minimum quality requirements in large-scale procurement as a lever and extending the service life of existing systems as a complementary measure. Part of this effort is the establishment of a combined return system for panels, inverters, and mounting structures, which is intended to make extending the service life commercially viable and ensure high-quality processing. With regard to the critical materials in solar panels—such as silicon, gallium, and silver—the Netherlands and Europe are currently largely dependent on imports; in this vision for the future, solar power systems will be designed without toxic and critical raw materials, with optimal repairability and recyclability.

Innovation Agendas for the Manufacturing Industry

This shift toward implementation was also a central theme at the Circular Manufacturing Industry Annual Event, held on June 17 at De Kas in Woerden. Program Manager Iris Grobben discussed the content and significance of the roadmaps there.

During the annual event, participants also got hands-on experience with the roadmaps for five product groups, as well as with the tools that help the sector implement them, such as the Residual Value Tool and the Raw Materials and Product Passport.

For Circonnect, the publication marks the start of the next phase. Practical experiences from the Chain Tracks and pilot projects continue to feed back into the roadmaps, and conversely, the roadmaps in turn inspire new projects. You can read more about this in the recent update on the roadmaps for the manufacturing industry.

In the coming weeks, we will be publishing further details about the content of the roadmaps, going into greater depth than is possible in this overview.