The Expert Forum is Europe’s leading raw materials innovation and education exchange that connects stakeholders and actors from various parts of different raw materials value chains. This highly collaborative environment culminates in producing radically new ways of addressing raw materials sustainability across the supply chains.
Over three days, technical experts from industry and academia will gather to debate the technological advancements and business opportunities to explore industry needs in terms of innovation and education, identify partner interests, and promote matchmaking and consortia formation for project proposal submission.
Register here: https://eitrawmaterials.eu/expert-forum/
On 20 April 2022, Federal Minister Elisabeth Köstinger visited the research facilities of the Montanuniversität Leoben that are working on pyrolysis for the production of hydrogen. These activities are located in the “Resources Innovation Center” (RIC Leoben), to which Minister Köstinger promised funding of three million Euros, divided between the years 2022 – 2028. The focal points of the funding agreement are activities on the following areas:
The Resources Innovation Center Leoben will work on research topics (dissertations) on these themes, involving research funding from Austrian, European and global funding programmes (FFG, Horizon Europe, EIT RawMaterials). “Crisis security requires raw materials. Not all raw materials are infinitely available everywhere, which is why the Resources Innovation Center (RIC) at the Montanuniversität Leoben is an important institution that we are supporting in its work with three million Euros. Research is already being carried out here to find scientific answers to future challenges in the form of innovations,” said Elisabeth Köstinger.
A guideline for engineers about earth limitations – 2021-2022
In 2009, former director of the Stockholm Resilience Center Johan Rockström led a group of 28 internationally renowned scientists to identify the nine processes that regulate the stability and resilience of the Earth system. The scientists proposed 9 quantitative planetary boundaries:
Crossing these boundaries increases the risk of generating large-scale abrupt or irreversible environmental changes. Since then the planetary boundaries framework has generated enormous interest within science, policy, and practice. Over the course of 10 lectures, international experts will introduce the audience to the concept of the 9 planetary boundaries within which humanity can continue to develop and thrive for generations to come.
Anja Vujaković joined RIC Leoben in September 2021 as Education Project Manager. She studied at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna and the Vienna University of Technology and will soon obtain her title as MSc in Environmental Technology and International Affairs. Anja has collected over 5 years of working experience in the field of international communication and sustainable development. She worked in the Environment Department of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization where she was tasked with linking the ‘Minamata Convention on Mercury’ to the Sustainable Development Goals and Circular Economy. Before joining the Education Team at RIC Leoben, she spent one year at the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency where she was responsible for the drafting of daily reports to the Director General on a variety of topics from the field of nuclear science and security.
EIT International Summer School “From dreging to deep-sea mining”
Striving for independence from the import of Critical Raw Materials, the EU has made considerable investments towards reaching marine mineral resources. A European deep-sea mining industry would have a potential of creating a hundreds-billion market and thousands of new jobs. The current knowledge about deep-sea mining and particularly about the impact of mining activities on the marine environment is quite diversified and often contradictory. This is not conducive to the acceptance of seabed mining by society due to the absence of a clear and holistic picture of seabed mining and its possible environmental footprint.
The DSM-School project is aiming to become a platform for the elaboration and dissemination of knowledge in deep-sea mining to increase awareness of wider society on state-of-the-art mining technologies, recent investigations on the environmental impact of seabed mining activities, marine mineral resources, as well as economic, political, social and legislative aspects. The project will reach the wider society with communication tools such as a two-week summer school organized in Germany, the Netherlands and Norway, the Internet, and public events.
01/2020 – 12/2022
EIT RawMaterials – RM Academy
Montanuniversität Leoben (Partner), Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe, IHC Mining B.V., Norwegian University of Science and Technology, STICHTING NEDERLANDSE WETENSCHAPPELIIJK ONDERZOEK INSTITUTEN, Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg, Delft University of Technology
Chair of Mining Engineering and Mineral Economics – Nikolaus Sifferlinger
Total: € 292.455
Montanuniversität Leoben: € 38.085
