EIT RawMaterials Projects

The ambitious vision of EIT RawMaterials is realised by the creation of a structured collaboration within the Knowledge Triangle, which is the basis of the EIT model.

Call for Innovation & Education Projects is now open!

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EIT RawMaterials Projects Timeline

79 Projects
Project Portfolio
Innovation Themes
Innovation Areas/Lighthouses

Circular Economy

3D-ACCELERATOR: Virtual learning environment for 3D-metal printing

Project duration: 1 September 2019 – 31 December 2022

Objective

The 3D ACCELERATOR-AMASI project develops a virtual learning environment for Additive Manufacturing. The mainstream education system is insufficient in supporting industry with the skills needed to implement the technology. The environment is built to let all stakeholders, from business to R&D, to benefit from the training. The main target is to increase the knowledge in companies, to allow a technological revolution to become the new reality.

The solution (technology)

The development of additive manufacturing in industry will require strong input from three areas: materials producers, equipment producers and manufacturers of equipment using metal parts. Any learning process needs to include aspects from all these three areas, and the knowhow and input from actors in materials and equipment manufacturing industries are crucial for the learning on engineers in the user industries.

Partnership

  • Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd. VTT, Finland (Lead Partner)
  • Aalto University, Finland
  • Centre de Recherches Métallurgiques asbl (CRM Group), Belgium
  • KU Leuven, Belgium
  • Kemira Oyj, Finland
  • Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology, Finland
  • Metso Minerals Oy, Finland
  • UAV Autosystems Hovering Solutions España, S.L., Spain

For more information, please visit the project web page.

Sustainable Mining

3DBRIEFCASE: Learning the use of minerals through non conventional and digital tools

Project duration: 1 January 2020 – 31 December 2021

Objective

The 3D BRIEFCASE Project seeks to bring mineral raw materials and mining closer to society as a whole. Its ultimate goal is that citizens from an early age and students, get to know and understand from where the mineral products they use in daily life come from what minerals can be found in their environment and for what are being exploited, and how our daily purchasing decisions affect the social environment of the people who live in countries with mineral resources exploitation. It shows that it is not possible to live without minerals and without mines but, through example and a friendly approach, they will see that mining is a modern activity and that its societal and environment impact can be mitigated by e.g. implementation of zero waste mining as part of circular economy, ensuring sustainable mineral extraction, by not endangering the supply of future generations.

The solution (technology)

During the first part of the project (2019) we are developing new BRIEFCASEs covering sensitive aspects of the mining activities and focusing on primary school pupils to students (6-14 years old) and their teachers. The Project has generated practical and theoretical contents for the physical briefcases which cover the following minerals: cobalt, col-tan (Columbo-Tantalite), diamond, germanium, gold, lithium, and tin, and is developing the virtual material (web) compiling all these materials to offer an interactive tool that can be self-used by pupils. Some workshops will be offered in the partner’s locations during the end of the current year, to teach teachers how to use this tool.

Now, this second part of the project, 3D BRIEFCASE (2020-2021), proposes to improve the virtual tool into an augmented reality (AR) application to attract students up to 18 years old and to adapt the tool for a 3D-application to play with 3D-glasses for permanent usage in science museums and educational centres, and for private use of the general public. We will create new BRIEFCASES, specially designed to cover the minerals exploited by our mining partners, helping them to gain acceptance in the surrounded communities and demonstrating the effectiveness of the tool.

Partnership

  • Gomez Pardo Foundation, Spain (Lead Partner)
  • Ayma Mining Solutions SL, Spain
  • Colegio Oficial de Ingieros de Minas del Sur de España, Spain
  • Coventry University, United Kingdom
  • European Association of Mining Industries, Metal Ores & Industrial Minerals (EUROMINES), Belgium
  • Fundación Tecnalia Research & Innovation, Spain
  • Geoalcali, Spain
  • Instituto Geológico y Minero de España (IGME – Spanish Geological Survey), Spain
  • Magnesitas Navarras S.A., Spain
  • Monolithos Ltd, Greece
  • Montanuniversität Leoben, Austria
  • Technical University of Kosice, Slovakia
  • Universidade Nova de Lisboa (New University of Lisbon) – Faculty of Sciences and Technology (FCT NOVA), Portugal
  • Università degli Studi di Milano – Bicocca (University of Milano-Bicocca), Italy
  • Zavod za gradbenistvo Slovenije, ZAG (Slovenian National Building and Civil Engineering Institute), Slovenia

For more information, please visit the project web page.

Mineral Processing/Resource Efficiency

4L-Alloys: Life Long Learning on Light Alloys: from Raw Materials to Sustainable Products

Project duration: 1 April 2017 – 31 March 2018

Objective

4L-Alloys is a lifelong learning project on Light Metals, addressing topics such as raw materials, recycling, life cycle analysis, design and manufacturing for easy disassembling and post-consumer scrap management. 4L-Alloys School intends to promote sustainability in production, manufacturing and use of Light Alloys (Al- and Mg-based) by addressing three specific objectives:

  • a highly industry-oriented 1-week intensive School, focussed on Recycling (Scrap sorting and analysis, Impurities from recycling, New secondary alloys), New Raw Materials, Critical Raw Materials in Aluminium & Magnesium alloys, Applications, LCA perspective;
  • supporting an applied knowledge about sustainability, by various “in-field lab sessions”, on alloys design, production and recycling, manufacturing of light alloys components, applying LCA methodologies);
  • elaborating a pilot MOOC module, for an increased dissemination of the project contents and outcomes.

The solution (technology)

This lifelong learning project consists of

  • 1-week intensive school, taught by an international panel of Industry and Academy experts,
  • 5 “in-field lab sessions” (addressed to design of alloys, foundry lab, High Pressure Diecasting lab, LCA tools application, advanced techniques for scraps recovering), carried out on industry site or at partner locations,
  • a pilot version of a MOOC module on light alloys for sustainable products.

Partnership

  • University of Padova, Italy (Lead Partner)
  • Tecnalia, Spain
  • KTH – Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan, Sweden
  • RWTH – University of Aachen, Germany
  • Katholieke Universiteit KU Leuven, Belgium
  • WPI – Worcester Polytechnic Institute, USA
  • SAEN SpA, Italy

For more information, please visit the project website.

Mineral Processing/Resource Efficiency

ACCHAIRSTU: Attracting Students to RM Metallurgy

Project duration: 1 January 2016 – 31 December 2016

Objective

The goal of ACCHAIRSTU is to spread metallurgical knowledge of raw materials in society through new targeted communication and awareness-raising activities, with an aim to raise people’s interest in the raw materials sector, attract future students, increase goodwill towards raw materials industry activities and secure the social license to operate for raw materials industries.

The solution (technology)

ACCHAIRSTU encourages students to join the metallurgical industry and improves their awareness of the sector by arranging industrial visits and internships, and helps to disseminate metallurgical knowledge by awarding prizes to help the publication of metallurgy-related studies and thesis.

Partnership

  • Atlantic Copper, Spain
  • Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain
  • Gomez Pardo Foundation, Spain
  • Lorraine University, France
  • Technische Univ. Bergakademie Freiberg, Germany
  • Slovenian National Building and Civil Engineering Institute, Slovenia
  • Université de Liège, Belgium
Circular Economy

ADMA2: Practical training between Academia and Industry during doctoral studies

Project duration: 1 January 2019 – 31 December 2021

Objective

ADMA 2-proposal intensifies collaboration and information sharing between academia and industry. The financial support and the organization of practical training periods of PhD-students into companies located in different parts of Europe, will foster new research capacities that can rapidly be transferred into the advantage of business life. On the other hand, the business produces new demands and research topics; therefore symbiosis-kind relationships are formed between the two cooperating parties. As an overall effect of the interaction, new generation of products and production processes are stimulated, where harmful materials are substituted and/or the production processes systematically improved e.g. according to the principles of quality philosophies, e.g. Six sigma-Lean, Green Chemistry and Engineering. This leads to circumstances where less waste (e.g. over-processing, waiting, transferring, storing) is generated in industries.

The solution (technology)

Products are designed for quality and their recyclability considered already in the product development phase of their lifecycle. All these actions strengthen also doctoral students’ possibilities in career development in many ways. Students can apply research skills in practice before graduation, establish new collaborative networks, gain new ideas and aspects to their doctoral thesis, achieve good experience that can guide their career towards the raw materials sector. After graduation, students bring their experience and knowledge for the advantage of their new employer organisation, which in the end, is expected to benefit the whole raw materials society.

Partners

For more information, please visit the project web page.

Exploration

ADMADP: Advanced Materials Doctoral Programme – ADMA-DP for Doctoral Education

Project duration: 1 January 2016 – 31 December 2018

Objective

ADMADP develops the doctoral training in the existing Advanced Materials Doctoral Programme (ADMA-DP) to fulfill the quality criteria of the EIT-labelling in doctoral training. The ADMA-DP was initiated in 2013 at the University of Oulu to address the raw materials needs mostly in Finland since the mining activities had become very important in northern and eastern part of Finland and in the Nordic countries at large.

The solution (technology)

The research and education in the ADMA-DP include the whole raw materials cycle, taking into account sustainability aspects, i.e. economic, environmental, and social sustainability of products and production processes. In this project, the innovation and entrepreneurship mindset will be fostered to strengthen the ADMA-DP education and to benefit the stakeholders, i.e. society, universities, research centers and industry via skilled experts. ADMADP will add innovation and entrepreneurship training into the programme (development of courses and a study module) in order to meet the requirements for EIT-labelling.

The approach to developing students’ innovation skills comprises of:

  • Modules in product development and productisation, entrepreneurship and business;
  • International placements in industry and research organisations;
  • A programme of activities for students to build their own networks.

Partnership

Exploration

ADMIRED LAB: Advanced Mineral Resources Development Labelled

Project duration: 1 April 2017 – 1 October 2019

Objective

The impact of the program will be the impact the graduates will have on the mining industry and its respective interconnection with society and the environment. The programme will create students with a new mindset that will practically apply their newly gained awareness in a cross-industrial/governmental and social manner. They will convey that only through the creation of synergies, interdisciplinary thinking and systemic approaches the status-quo in mining can be changed for the better in regards to a sustainable approach. The programme will thus have a de-siloing effect on various fields involved.

The solution (technology)

Synergies will be created between mining companies, political institutions, social and environmental stakeholders and their NGOs as well as public administration. This will only be possible through creating such students as ADMIRED LAB students with an intercultural mindset that consolidates all these silos to be a new worldview and who know how to apply this. The benefitting entities will be all parties mentioned above as well as society and the planet as a whole. Academic institutions can benefit from the programme structure which is transferrable to other content foci but yet produces systemic innovative entrepreneurial thinkers.

Partnership

You can find more details and apply on the official website of the Master programme.

Mineral Processing/Resource Efficiency

AISS: Alumni Interaction in the frame of dedicated Summer Schools

Project duration: 1 April 2018 – 31 March 2021

Objective

Facilitating the insertion and career progression of the AMIR master students and young professionals in the market of raw materials innovation and related ecosystems.

The solution (technology)

A series of summer schools will allow for networking with industry partners, start-ups, incubators, alumni and current AMIR students. The summer schools will broaden the knowledge and improve the skills of the students by offering additional pedagogical contents on industrial and business intelligence. This project aims at officially creating and developing an AMIR network of alumni. In addition, a graduation ceremony will be implemented within AISS as well as a matchmaking meeting with industrial partners, start-ups and incubators.

Partnership

  • Université de Bordeaux, France (Lead Partner)
  • Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany
  • University of Liège, Belgium
  • Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, UPM (Technical University of Madrid), Spain
  • Institut polytechnique de Grenoble (Grenoble Institute of Technology, INP), France
  • Agencia Estatal Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas M.P., CSIC (Spanish National Research Council), Spain
  • Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives, CEA (French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission), France
  • Frauhofer-Gesellschaft, Germany
  • ArcelorMittal, France
  • Arkema, France
  • Veolia Deutschland GmbH, Germany

AISS project is fully integrated in the funded Advanced Materials Innovative Recycling (AMIR) master programme.

Mineral Processing/Resource Efficiency

AMIR: Advanced Materials Innovative Recycling

Project duration: 1 January 2017 – 31 December 2019

Objective

The Advanced Materials Innovative Recycling (AMIR) Master Programme focuses on the raw material value chain, with particularemphasis on recycling.

The two main objectives are:

  • Educate students to become highly skilled European professionals with expertise in various types of materials. This expertise will enable them to develop, at a large and ambitious scale, new methods for material recycling. In addition, the AMIR program includes classes on transferable skills such as innovation, ethics, intellectual property, life cycle assessment, sustainability and advanced research strategies.
  • Develop a deep entrepreneurship mindset with the help and expertise of associated businesses, incubators and innovation services as well as a large panel of industries.

The solution (technology)

This program will contribute to the Raw Materials Initiative to set out actions to improve the enforcement of EU rules on how waste may be traded. Interdisciplinarity around materials science is today needed to be able to propose the industrial alternatives for materials recycling. The 2010 report from the CEFIC European Chemistry Industry Council emphasizes multidisciplinarity and a broad skillset as the main competencies to be further developed in higher education curricula in the chemistry field. The new routes for an efficient materials recycling will be developed by the engineers/researchers of tomorrow with a consolidated ethic, a solid knowledge at the crossroad between the academic and the applied materials science disciplines as well as a solid entrepreneurship mindset.

Partnership

If you have any questions regarding the AMIR Master Programme, please contact: amir-master@eitrawmaterials.eu

You can find more information and apply on the official AMIR website.