Racing towards sustainable mobility

Minerals, metals and advanced materials are the building blocks of the transportation revolution and are essential in the global goal to tackle climate change and achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The Raw & Circular Economy Expedition (RACE) for students is an EIT RawMaterials flagship education programme and with its first-ever edition for students launched in 2019. The Global Digital RACE aims at being the world leader in “Raw Materials for Sustainability” education which unites sustainability enthusiasts to connect, learn, be inspired and obtain the opportunity to create innovations to societal challenges.

Global Digital RACE 2020: Programme

Global Digital RACE was a free virtual challenge-based learning programme across the raw materials value chain that unites sustainability pioneers to connect, learn, and innovate for the pressing, raw material challenges for Future Mobility.

At our Global RACE 2020, more than 170 participants from nearly 40 nations heard from and debated with experts from industry, policy, start-ups and academia to address challenges such as:

  • What metals does the future of mobility require?
  • How can we recover raw materials when recycling electric vehicles?
  • Can we maximise green-field start-ups’ potential?

Everyone’s passion during the Global Digital RACE 2020 helped to transform knowledge into start-up solutions. EIT RawMaterials will guide these young people further on their innovation journeys.

The main part of the event took place from 19 – 21 + 25 November 2020. Participants in the Racer track kicked-off the event on 16 November by joining the Global Digital RACE 2020 hackathon and working on the solutions to the partners’ challenges throughout the whole week.

During the event, participants in three different tracks: Viewer, Racer, Team Manager had access to:

  • 3 days of Live Sessions (19 – 21 November 2020)
  • 16 on-demand videos covering the entire Future Mobility raw materials value chain
  • 3 HR Session by AUDI AG, Atlantic Copper and Northvolt
  • 4 live AUDI AG virtual tours
  • 6 Mentoring sessions (AUDI AG, Intraw, Atlantic Copper, Skellefteå Kommun, Umicore, EIT RawMaterials)

In total, 42 experts from 22 organisations have joined the Global Digital RACE 2020 event. We would like to thank in particular to the nine partners who have provided the real-industry challenges for the RACE participants: AUDI AG, Atlantic Copper, Cornish Lithium, Energy and Strategy, Global Battery Alliance, Intraw, Northvolt, Skellefteå Kommun and Umicore.

The RACE brings together diverse people from different backgrounds, nationalities and disciplines and empowers them to use their creativity and passion to transform their expertise into “Raw Materials for Future Mobility” solutions. This RACE model is replicable and can offer a blueprint to the forthcoming European Innovation Area to realise its innovation ambitions.

Wesley Crock, Head of Academy at EIT RawMaterials

Global Digital RACE 2020: Hackathon

After a week of Hackathon, 14 idea concepts have been submitted, from which RACE Jury selected top 9 ideas. Top 9 teams had the chance to undergo professional Pitch Coaching after which they pitched their solutions in front of the RACE Jury on 25 November.

It is our pleasure to announce that the following three teams have been awarded as the best RACE solutions:

1st place went to impactPCB (Atlantic Copper Challenge): Team members: Artur Sagarov (Chalmers University of Technology), Bermet Kerim Kyzy (SUMA, University of Trento), Devy Kartika Ratnasari (KTH Royal Institute of Technology), Rasmus Blom (Chalmers University of Technology), Tim Meijer (EMC, TU Delft/RWTH Aachen/Aalto University)

2nd place took Northern Lights (Northvolt & Skellefta Kommun Challenge): Team members: Marisi Fernández Calderón (Chalmers University of Technology), Vasileios Drogkoulas (Chalmers University of Technology)

3rd place was awarded to eSWAP (AUDI AG Challenge): Team members: Franz Hüls (RWTH Aachen University), Paola Beltran (AMIR, NOVA University of Lisboa), Saumya Sadanand (AMIS), Wei-Qing Tan (AMIR, NOVA University of Lisboa), Willem Baartman (Láidir. Circular Mobility)

*Students from the EIT-labelled programmes

Thank you for organising such a great event. Looking positively forward to attend 2021 RACE in presence.

Global Digital RACE 2020 participant

For me it was a very nice experience and I thanks the organisers and expect other interesting meetings about the circular economy in the near future!

Global Digital RACE 2020 participant

Amazing event. Enjoyed every bit of it. Got to learn a lot and made a lot of valuable connections. Thanks!

Global Digital RACE 2020 participant

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