The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT, http://eit.europa.eu/) has created Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) in the fields of ICT, Climate, Health, Energy, Food, Manufacturing and Raw Materials. The Objective of the KICs is to stimulate Innovation and Technology Transfer in their specific areas, notably by linking up actors from industry and academia.

The KIC EIT Raw Materials started its activities in 2015. Counting over 100 full members, it aims to accelerate innovation in mining, recycling and substitution of critical raw materials. The KIC EIT Raw Materials has defined six Knowledge & Innovation Themes:

1.    Exploration and raw materials resource assessment
2.    Mining in challenging environments
3.    Increased resource efficiency in mineral and metallurgical processes
4.    Recycling and material chain optimisation for End-of-Life products
5.    Substitution of critical and toxic materials in products and for optimised performance
6.    Design of products and services for the circular economy

EMMI and some of its members play a very active role in the KIC, notably the definition of its scope and activities.

http://eitrawmaterials.eu/

       

KIC Education projects initiated by EMMI

The KIC Raw Materials has launched calls for Education Activities, including Master and Doctoral Education, and Training Schools

a) IDS-FunMat-INNO

The project IDS-FunMat-INNO is partly based on the ERASMUS MUNDUS network IDS-FunMat. It is coordinated by Prof. Thierry Toupance from University Bordeaux.

The core of project members are from the EMMI network, but some new members from academia (Universities Milano, Bicocca, Lorraine, Ghent and Aalto), research (Tecnalia) and industry (Mondragon, Heraeus, Arkema) were also added.

The project has start in 2016 and (so far) has a duration of 3 years. A new application was submitted to continue 2020-21.

IDS-FunMat-INNO organises two Joint Training Schools and workshops per year, and also finances local training activities as well as mobility of PhD students between countries and towards industry. Thus, IDS-FunMat-INNO will continue the work of the EMMI Doctoral School, but with emphasis on training in innovation-related skills, entrepreneurship, and research in substitution and recycling of materials.

More info: http://www.idsfunmat.u-bordeaux.fr/index.php/ids-inno-home

b) Master courses AMIR and AMIS

Another successful project proposal in the first calls for Education Activities of the KIC Raw Materials was the project AMIS (Advanced Materials for Innovation and Sustainability), led by Grenoble INP and with 10 project partners from Academia, Research and Industry. AMIS is complementary to the ERASMUS+ FAME Master program (www.fame-master.com) by emphasising skills in entrepreneurship and innovation. Another focus of the curriculum will be life cycle analysis and criticality of raw materials.

https://amis-master.eitrawmaterials.eu/

The AMIR Master program (Advanced Materials Innovative Recycling) focuses on the raw material value chain, with particular emphasis on recycling. Academic and industry leaders have built a strong multidisciplinary program to educate future international professionals who will develop new routes for materials recycling.

AMIR-Master is coordinateed by University of Bordeaux. For more infos visit the project website:

https://www.amir-master.com/