About Circular Critical Materials Ignite Labs

The UK is looking for increased supply chain resilience for materials identified in the Critical Minerals Intelligence Centre criticality assessment.

The UK is shifting from “secure supply” to “secure and circular” critical-materials policy. The UK Government’s Critical Minerals Strategy (Vision 2035) frames domestic supply, recycling and reuse of materials in electric vehicles,EV batteries, wind turbines and electronics as essential, but flags barriers: limited critical-mineral-rich waste streams, low collection rates, and the high cost and technical difficulty of recovering materials from complex end-of-life products.

Current challenges and risks include high import dependence and exposure to concentrated global supply chains, price volatility, and long lead times to build domestic processing and recycling capacity – issues underlined by the UK Critical Minerals Intelligence Centre’s 2024 criticality assessment and the government’s resilience narrative. Battery circularity is a near-term focus because large volumes of EV packs are expected to reach end-of-life in the 2030s, creating a UK recycling opportunity.

Design capability in this space is particularly critical because the central risks are not technological but systemic. Before recovery technologies or businesses can scale, innovators must correctly frame where value is lost, why materials fail to circulate, and which actors control key leverage points. Design methods such as system mapping, value-chain ethnography, stakeholder incentives analysis and evidence-led problem framing surface misaligned regulations, discrepant commercial incentives, information asymmetries, and behavioural frictions that suppress collection, reuse and high-quality recycling. By clarifying the right problems to solve, design reduces the risk of investing in technically elegant but systemically ineffective solutions.

About the programme

This programme uses human‑centred design to help you make informed decisions for your business. By joining the Lab, you’ll gain useful knowledge, build new networks and learn practical innovation methods that can improve the success of circular critical materials projects and businesses.

You’ll be able to:

• Identify a challenge in your business that could be addressed through an innovative approach.
• Connect with UK innovators, universities, businesses and end users across the critical materials supply chain.
• Develop your project through structured workshops run by a design and innovation agency.
• Hear about current funding opportunities and meet investors, helping you explore collaborations, grow supply‑chain activity and strengthen your place in the UK critical materials economy.
• Build a community with other innovators from within and beyond your sector.