Firstly, the ESEE Dialogue Conferences (ESEE DC) aim to establish a network among raw material stakeholders in the ESEE region and to include them into the EIT RawMaterials. Secondly, our efforts in the ESEE Education Strategy & Working Group aim at improving and developing raw material education. Thirdly, we aim to enhance university-business cooperation and advocate the entrepreneurial spirit. We are cooperating and interlinking Europe and the ESEE region in all these efforts as well as we seek new cooperation to jointly work on the three ESEE strategy pillars.
“Raw materials are essential for the production of a broad range of goods and applications used in everyday life. They are intrinsically linked to all industries across all supply chain stages. They are crucial for a strong European industrial base, an essential building block of the EU‘s growth and competitiveness” (Report on Critical Raw Materials and the Circular Economy 2018)
For this reason, the EIT RawMaterials Regional Center Leoben at Montanuniversitaet Leoben is dedicated to developing raw materials into a major strength of Europe. The ESEE region has played a role in this dedication since the very beginning. We believe that the region’s unique geological and secondary raw material potential is vital for the European Raw Materials Strategy. Furthermore, there is considerable innovation capacity, necessary for the development of the sector, in the region. Therefore, the Regional Center Leoben has been organizing Dialogue Conferences to pursue the inclusion of the ESEE region into the EIT RawMaterials. It is our vision that today’s raw material challenges are best faced by joining our forces in pan-European networks. Thus, we have worked to reach out to raw material stakeholders to foster networking, collaboration and project ideation. Our impact has been multiplied by those who participated in the first conferences and then began to generate their own impact on the ESEE region by using EIT RawMaterials as a network. We are proud to see the network grow and looking back at what has been established motivates us to look ahead, improve and use our experience to further multiply our impact.