On 4 and 5 November 2025, the 10th Steering Committee meeting of the BMFTR funding initiative “Regional Phosphorus Recycling (RePhoR)” took place in Hannover. The focus was on planning transfer activities and drafting political recommendations for action. As the legal obligation to recover phosphorus takes effect in 2029, the large-scale implementation experiences gained within RePhoR are becoming increasingly important. The funding initiative demonstrates how phosphorus can be recovered from wastewater, sewage sludge, and sewage sludge ash and returned to regional material cycles.

The meeting was hosted by the Institute of Sanitary Engineering and Waste Management (ISAH) at Leibniz University Hannover, which coordinates the joint project SATELLITE. Participants gathered at the Royal Stables, the university’s communication centre.

As the RePhoR joint projects approach completion – some already at the end of this year, others in 2026 – numerous results and practical insights are now available. These findings vividly illustrate the technical, organisational, and economic conditions necessary to recover phosphorus on a large scale and reintegrate it into material cycles. They are increasingly relevant, as the nationwide implementation of phosphorus recovery still faces challenges – particularly due to the lack of large-scale operational experience.

Against this backdrop, the accompanying project TransPhoR, coordinated by FiW, is planning a series of targeted transfer activities together with the joint projects to make the results more widely accessible – through expert presentations, publications, and participation in trade fairs such as IFAT 2026. A comprehensive status report with contributions from all projects was already published in June and is available at https://www.bmbf-rephor.de/download-statusbericht-2025/. The update of this report was also discussed during the meeting.

The RePhoR Steering Committee serves as a platform for cross-project networking and exchange on current developments in research, industry, administration, and policy. It brings together the coordinators of the RePhoR joint projects, experts from public authorities, associations, and ministries, as well as representatives of the project management agency and the accompanying project TransPhoR.

The Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) funds the initiative “Regional Phosphorus Recycling (RePhoR)” as part of the programme “Water: N – Research and Innovation for Sustainability”. Water: N is part of the national strategy “Research for Sustainability (FONA)”.