VDEh-Betriebsforschungsinstitut GmbH (BFI) – BFI is a non-profit research institute located in Düsseldorf, Germany, and is specialised to applied research topics in the field of steel industry. BFI maintains close contacts with many industrial partners and with a huge number of research partners around Europe (in total more than 180 project partners). The institute addresses emerging issues of major relevance for steel industry in areas such as „Energy efficiency and CO₂-reduction“, „Process and process chain optimisation“, „Circular Economy“ as well as „Industry 4.0 and sensors“ and makes them the focus of research and development work. By dealing with these four main fields of interest simultaneously many synergetic effects can be realised which is a significant strength of BFI.

The institute systematically aligns its structures to the requirements of the customers in order to ensure that the research process will deliver the scientific excellence, creativity, flexibility and speed, that are so essential and for privately funded projects in addition confidentiality, which is essential for the industry in performance of the research activities. The staff of around 100 people is organised in eight scientific departments and drives in close and interdisciplinary cooperation the above mentioned four thematic topics. 70% of the staff are scientists and engineers who guarantee, together with technicians and administrative staff, a high level of research quality and project performance e.g., by applying a strict quality management of research proposals and a consequent results-oriented management of projects. Nearly all projects end with practically implemented solutions of research results.

RINA Consulting – Centro Svilluppo Materiali S.p.A. (CSM) – CSM was established in 1963 as a research centre for the state iron and steel industry. CSM carries out research and development in close collaboration with Government, European and International supporting institutions, agencies and industries. Moreover, CSM collaborates with many national and international universities. CSM has a long-standing European tradition dating back to 1970, when Italy participated in the first projects of CECA programme. The traditional presence of CSM as the Italian reference pole in European research (RFCS and Framework Programmes) results in hundreds of international collaboration agreements and contracts. CSM is an active player (founding father and participant) in the main PPP (Private Public Partnership) of Horizon 2020 programme and in other relevant materials initiatives as A4M and EMIRI. CSM is working continuously to increase the presence worldwide and particularly in emerging areas (KET, KIC, EIP) and in other initiatives (FoF, E2B).

Centre de Recherces Métallurgiques ASBL (CRM) – CRM  is a non-profit steel research organisation that was founded in 1948 with a longstanding experience in steel research and proven expertise in steel processing and alloy development for major industrial steel groups among others in a lot of previous ECSC and RFCS projects. The global annual R&D budget of CRM is about 40 M€ of which more than 4 M€ Capex. One of the major CRM objectives is the development, manufacturing, pilot scale validation and industrial implementation of innovative process technologies. During the last 20 years CRM participated in more than 100 ECSC and RFCS projects and coordinated about 2/3 of them. A major point is that CRM has the experiences, skills, facilities, staff and resources to start from an innovative idea and to go the industrial implementation and online assessment of the full-scale equipment. At the laboratories, with a total surface of 20.000m², several pilot lines are installed, amongst them a continuous hot rolling pilot line with 2 rolling stands for coils up to 2 ton. The current staff consist of 265 researchers and more than 50 patents have been obtained.

Swerim AB – Swedish Metals Research institute. (Project coordinator) – Swerim is a non-profit Swedish research institute within mining, metallurgy, manufacturing and materials. We conduct need-based applied industrial research and development concerning metals and their route from raw materials to finished product. Swerim was founded in 2018 originating from the two previous renowned research institutes Swerea MEFOS and Swerea KIMAB who has over 100 years of experience within the fields of steel making, processing and metals research. Swerim has long experience and process knowledge related to national and European research projects within heating technologies towards the heating and metalworking side. This includes pilot tests, measurement technologies and simulations related to fuels, combustion technologies, electrical heating, flexifuel technologies, energy savings, oxide growth and removal, hot rolling, heat treatments and low CO₂ and NO_x technology development.

RWTH – Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen – RWTH was founded in 1870 is a leading technical university in Germany successfully participating in numerous research projects in the RFCS and Framework funding programmes of the EU over the last decades. The Department for Industrial Furnaces and Heat Engineering (IOB) at RWTH is one of the leading European university departments working on industrial furnace technology, especially for reheating and heat treatment processes. The IOB is working on projects dealing with energy efficiency, emission reduction, process modelling, combustion and burner technology, fluid flow and heat transfer in furnaces. As a member in ESTEP and A.Spire, the IOB is strongly connected to the European steel industry and previously participated in different RFCS and Horizon Europe projects. ects.