AtomTrace in 2026: Building the Future on Strong Foundations

The year 2025 was a milestone for AtomTrace, and as we step into 2026, it is the perfect time to look back at what we have achieved and where we are heading next.

Last year, we had the honour of representing the Czech Republic at Expo 2025 Osaka not once, but on several occasions. We showcased AtomTrace at Expo 2025 Osaka with our team, presenting our LIBS and LIBS-hybrid applications across multiple industries, including glass manufacturing, automotive, food and feed, geology, and life sciences. For the first time ever, we introduced our Sci-Trace® LIRam Microscope™ to the public there: a unique instrument that combines elemental and molecular insight together with high-resolution optical microscopy, all powered by vacuum technology in a single platform for life sciences and beyond. We immediately started to roll it out to the market.

The feedback from Expo was clear: our technology not only resonates, but has a global impact. We established new partnerships and deepened relationships with customers, demonstrating that AtomTrace solutions from the Czech Republic don’t just draw attention – they deliver results and set a new standard for high-end instrumentation.

Our major development projects also moved forward significantly. C-Trace was officially launched under EIT RawMaterials. Together with our partners Diamo and the Technical University of Košice, we formed a dedicated development team and are now working intensively on the first C-Trace prototype, planned for completion this year. A-Trace reached a key milestone when the system was tested on-site for the first time. These projects show that the technology is ready for real-world conditions and heavy industrial deployment.

Without a doubt, in 2025 we made another big step toward the future. We marked an important public moment for the scalable architecture for EU–Africa cooperation in the CRM agenda. The launch of the Future Resources Development Global Initiative (FRDGI)—the Czech-led platform designed to support Zambia’s transition toward higher value-added processing, advanced analytics, and responsible development of critical raw materials, in full alignment with the EU Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA)—has shown that advanced analytical technologies remain at the core of this strategy, facilitating transparent, sustainable, and high-value resource development in line with EU expectations on traceability, environmental responsibility, and resilient value chains.

Delivering two M-Trace systems to the Zambian Copperbelt University under a CzechAid tied financial donation by the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been the beginning of the broader AtomTrace and FRDGI strategic EU–Zambia CRM cooperation journey. These two instruments will support geological research and education in Zambia and, together with FRDGI, open new opportunities for AtomTrace in global mineral resources development, the CRM agenda, and the mining sector. Our participation in the EU–Zambia Lobito Corridor Business Forum showed that we are ready to expand in this direction.

As Foreign Minister Macinka highlighted during this week’s meeting of Czech business missions in the Senate of the Czech Parliament, where our 2024 and 2025 missions and delivery to Zambia were also showcased, initiatives like this go beyond exports by supporting long-term presence abroad and access to critical raw materials for the Czech economy. AtomTrace’s activities in Zambia and FRDGI reflect this approach and clearly demonstrate it.

As we enter 2026, we would like to thank our customers, investors, and distributors for their trust and ongoing support. This year, we aim to build on last year’s momentum, expand AtomTrace’s global presence, and further strengthen cooperation with our partners worldwide.

At the same time, we remain fully committed to our existing users. Their continuous feedback allows us to refine our solutions and respond more effectively to real-world needs. Building on this feedback, one of our first steps in the new year is an update to our LIBS processing software, AtomAnalyzer. The upcoming release will bring new features to support more advanced spectral processing and greater versatility for a wide range of applications. The launch is planned in the coming days.

We are excited about what lies ahead and confident that 2026 will be another successful year for AtomTrace.

Stay tuned—there’s much more to come.