Students pitch raw materials solutions at RAIDMAP finals

On 27 November 2020, four teams of students made the pitch for the title of winners of the RAIDMAP competition. RAIDMAP is an EIT RawMaterials Education project designed in order to match students’ fresh ideas with professionals’ experience, approaching existing industrial issues on themes such as circular economy, recyclability and substitution of critical raw materials. The RAIDMAP consortium planned to hold events across Europe but due to the pandemic situation, students presented their ideas online, to a panel of evaluators from industry, academia and EIT RawMaterials.

From the seven teams participating in the first round, four teams had been selected as the finalists:

  • Team #2, presenting ReFurn, a project about recycling of mixed plastic wastes to produce furniture panels
  • Team #4, presenting a project describing the Copper replacement with Aluminium in battery pack busbars
  • Team #5, presenting Carton for Pants, a project supporting the use of liquid cartons to substitute glass, plastic and metals
  • Team #6, presenting FerroSilva, a project for the production of DRI (Directly Reduced Iron) using gasified biomass

The winning team selected by the evaluators was Team #4 who were commended by the panel for the clarity and structure of their presentation as well as their innovative project. The judges commented that the standard of the entries was very high, and all of the teams in the final were encouraged to apply to join the EIT Jumpstarter 2021, the EIT’s flagship Business Ideas Competition and gateway to their Accelerator programme.

The final teams of the RAIDMAP project impressed me for their ideas and enthusiasm combined with flexibility to remote co-working. Their pitches confirmed that young students do understand the coming challenges and are committed to play their role for a better future.

Fabio Ferri, Education Manager at EIT RawMaterials Innovation Hub South

It has been a very interesting edition of RAIDMAP, demonstrating how international and interdisciplinary teams of students can efficiently cooperate with industrial tutors to elaborate very stimulating project ideas in the field of Raw Materials. Our efforts will be those of supporting best ideas in view of possible projects, preparing a new and excellent edition of RAIDMAP in 2021 and structuring this initiative as a university course.

Franco Bonollo, Project Coordinator at the University of Padova

RAIDMAP will continue with a new set of competitors in 2021 – and whether it’s online or in person, we are sure to meet talented and enthusiastic young students, discover a range of new ideas to innovate in the raw materials value chain.