Rare Earth Permanent Magnet Alternatives: Innovation landscape report
Discover UK capabilities, innovation gaps and commercial opportunities in alternatives to rare earth permanent magnets.
Produced by: Carbon Limiting Technologies for Innovate UK
Overview
The Circular Critical Materials Supply Chain (CLIMATES) programme worked on a series of groundbreaking innovation landscape reports, aimed at securing and innovating across the rare earth elements (REEs) value chain.
This report identifies UK capabilities, innovation gaps, and commercialisation challenges, focusing on new magnetic materials, reformulation, substitution, and REE-free/reduced design.
Key findings
This report explores the following key innovation needs and opportunities in alternatives to rare earth permanent magnets:
- Accelerate REE-free magnet research
- Create industry-led working group(s)
- Development of a UK REE magnet knowledge hub
- Investigate environmental impacts
- Create small-scale magnet prototyping facilities
More details about this publication
Context
This Innovation Landscape Report on Rare Earth Permanent Magnet Alternatives forms part of a series of reports into the UK Rare Earth Elements (REEs) Value Chain, commissioned by Innovate UK as part of the Circular Critical Materials Supply Chains (CLIMATES) Programme which was established to develop and support critical materials supply chains within the UK, beginning with REEs.
There are six publications in this series – an executive summary and five innovation landscape reports. Each report identifies UK capabilities, global comparisons, and innovation opportunities.
Purpose
The reports highlight the strategic importance of REEs to the UK economy, emphasising their role in clean energy and digital technologies. Innovation is seen as key factor in the UK to building resilience and reducing dependency on monopolised global sources.
This report aims to summarise the UK opportunity and the current state of the innovations being developed for potential alternatives to rare earth permanent magnets (REPMs). This includes mapping technologies and capabilities that already exist within the UK and highlighting gaps that require future innovation support and investment.
What’s included
- Executive summary
- Background context
- Mapping the current UK innovation landscape for REE alternatives
- Assessing UK innovation landscape challenges and needs
Related reports in this series
- Rare Earth Value Chain: Executive summary
- Rare Earth Circular Economy: Innovation landscape report
- Rare Earth Permanent Magnet Manufacturing: Innovation landscape report
- Rare Earth Processing: Innovation landscape report
- Rare Earth Exploration, Extraction, Beneficiation and Concentration: Innovation landscape report
Related programmes
Critical Materials Supply Chain Innovation Network
Connect with partners and access funding, collaboration and commercial opportunities that strengthen the UK’s critical materials supply chains.
Circular Critical Materials Supply Chains
The CLIMATES programme supports the development of resilient, UK-based supply chains for rare earth elements. It aims to strengthen collaboration across sectors and build robust, circular supply chains ensuring a secure and sustainable supply of critical materials.