Objectives of the commitment
Develop an awareness raising campaign in the intersection of minerals and the environment. Twelve topics have been defined corresponding to the 12 months of the year 2015. Each of these topics will be presented to the target audience (the European public) in a structured manner with the help of a complementary set of activities, such as science cafés, workshops and competitions.
The strength of EMY is the strong European dimension and its capability to mobilise the public all accross Europe, and raise awareness for issues that are of truly European concern.
Description of the activities
Project activities start with a preparatory phase, during which the monthly topics will be elaborated in great detail. Supporting tools, such as the interactive, multilingual, participatory (Blog-based) website will also be created and the extensive contact network of project partners will be mobilised.
The European Minerals Year will be launched in Brussels at the begining of January 2015 in the form of an Information Day and media event, that will be open to all interested parties (the public, professional bodies, national associations, etc) that wish to join this initiative as supporters or via organising additional activities and side-events. The Year itself will be implemented with the help of Monthly Topics (themes) and a complementary set of instruments (science cafés, workshops, competitions, exhibitions, field visits, topic-specific geocaching, etc). As an additional measure extensive discussions will be conducted via the website, where Blogs for at least 21 countries will provide a forum for discussions and update on the monthly programmes. These national activities are interconnected with the help of multimedia tools and with the help of national representatives ("Country Managers"), who will provide a summary of activities in English. The "height" of activities during EMY will be the European Minerals Day (EMD) in May 2015 coordinated by IMA-Europe. It involves multi-stakeholder events to raise the profile of the minerals sector and gain public acceptance of mining operations. This event is expected to mobilise over 30 thousand people all over Europe.
EMY activities will be followed by an impact assessment phase, during which conclusions will be drawn and recommendations will be formulated for the organisation of similar large-scale, trans-European events with an environmental dimension.
Awareness will be raised for a range of environmental issues providing public support for the
implementation of a broad range of EC policies in the following areas:
January: Explaining mineral resources - why are they essential in our every-day life?
February: Minerals and health â Earth materials for a healthier society
March: Role of geology in the mitigation of climate change â carbon capture and storage
April: Minerals, soil and agriculture
May: The extraction of minerals - history, technology and environmental impacts
June: Mining and industrial heritage â promoting sustainable land use after mine reclamation
July: Industrial minerals and environment â applications in environmental technologies
August: Energy and minerals â past, present and the future
September: Critical minerals for the EU - what are these and why are they important?
October: Deep sea mining â environmental aspects
November: Recycling and substitution â technologies, economics and sustainability
December: Minerals and our future
Description of the expected impacts
Substantial impacts are expected from this action especially in the 12 topics defined for EMY2015. These monthly topics have been designed to fuel public interest and they have the potential to mobilise the European community for discussions about a range of important issues that are interconnected by (the production, use and recycling of) minerals. The overall key message, that minerals are important for the sustainable development of Europe, will reach millions. An expression of interest have been received by the Mining Directorate of the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Energy and Trade (MINETUR) that will help partners to disseminate the initiative among Spanish extractive industry stakeholders.
Coordinating organisation & role
Name of the coordinating organisation: European Federation of Geologists - EFGCountry: BelgiumEntity profile: OtherRole within the commitment:
Coordinator
Project management, organisation, networking, communication
Other partners
Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Angewandten Forschung e.V.
Name of the organisation: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Angewandten Forschung e.V. Country: Germany Entity profile: Governmental/public body
Role within the commitment: Fraunhofer will lead the CFRP and GFRP recycling research.
Fraunhofer will perform corrosion tests on the developed materials.
Fraunhofer will work with CIDAUT on the implementation, validation and refinement of LCCA tools for the project. Fraunhofer is the Quality Manager of the Consortium and will oversee deliverables and general reporting are produced with the best possible quality following agreed review standards.
Fundacion Cidaut
Name of the organisation: Fundacion Cidaut Country: Spain Entity profile:
Role within the commitment: CIDAUT will lead the research activities on materials recycling and compounding, implementing lab scale demonstrators of each process at its premises and, later, supporting end-users upscale the processes.
CIDAUT will perform mechanical tests, microstructural analyses, injection moulding capability studies on the developed materails, and will work with Fraunhofer on the implementation, validation and refinement of LCCA tools for the project.
RWTH Aachen University (Institute of plastic processing (IKV)
Name of the organisation: RWTH Aachen University (Institute of plastic processing (IKV) Country: Germany Entity profile: Governmental/public body
Role within the commitment: RWTH will implement the novel 3D Generative Preforming process (3D Fibre Spraying) that enables to create high-value long fibre-reinforced 3D preforms for thermoplastic and thermoset composites at low process costs (different kinds of yarn as a raw material, low tooling costs due to low cavity pressures). This cost effective technology allows to align the sprayed fibres in order to produce high-performance, engineered anisotropic products.
Universita' di Cagliari
Name of the organisation: Universita' di Cagliari Country: Italy Entity profile:
Role within the commitment: University of Cagliari is one of the leading European organization in the resin design and coupling with thermoplastic and thermose materials. University of Cagliari will support in the definition of the composite materials, both from CFRP/GFRP, ABS and Rare Earth composite material.
Relight
Name of the organisation: Relight Country: Italy Entity profile: Private sector - SME
Role within the commitment: RELIGHT will work with ITRB to provide the research partners with residues for the recycled ABS supply and the REE recovery processes, including their HydroWEEE process as part of the processes to be studied and analyzed.
Piaggio Aerospace
Name of the organisation: Piaggio Aerospace Country: Italy Entity profile: Private sector - large company
Role within the commitment: Piaggio Aerospace is one of the project End Users (Aeronautics Industry): as such it will provide requirements and further applications that could be developed with the Consortium Materials. Piaggio will assist in the compounds selection, provide Fraunhofer with specific corrosion requirements on business jet size aircraft, and will assess that the developed materials performance fits the selected applications desired improvements.
Blackshape Aircrafts
Name of the organisation: Blackshape Aircrafts Country: Italy Entity profile: Private sector - SME
Role within the commitment: Blackshape Aircrafts is one of the project End Users (Aeronautics Industry): as such it will provide requirements and further applications that could be developed with the Consortium Materials. Blackshape will support to fulfill the requirements of the aeronautics industry on ultra light jet, light jet and trainer for Syllabus, and will assess that the developed alloys performance fits the selected applications desired improvements.
KU Leuven
Name of the organisation: KU Leuven Country: Belgium Entity profile: Academia
Role within the commitment: KUL will collaborate on the balance problem studies and will lead the rare earth recovery research with the solvometallurgical and ionometallurgical processes.
KUL will also contribute to the final compounding selection.
KUL is the Dissemination Manager of the project, promoting that all partners are active on the project Dissemination.
FIDAMC
Name of the organisation: FIDAMC Country: Spain Entity profile: Governmental/public body
Role within the commitment: FIDAMC is going to lead the Work Package on Compression Moulding with CFRP-enhanced materials. As part of the AIRBUS Group, FIDAMC will also be able to provide the input material.
FIDAMC successfully developed a 3D Printer of own design to serve the Aerospace Industry and will be supporting Smart Lab 3D Industries in its 3D printer design.
COMPOSITE INNOVATION CENTER
Name of the organisation: COMPOSITE INNOVATION CENTER Country: Canada Entity profile: Governmental/public body
Role within the commitment: Composite Innovation Center is one of the world leading organization in the field of Composite materials, both from carbon fiber and vegetal-based fibers.
Composite Innovation center has successfully implemented, at lab-scale, recycling processes for CFRP and GFRP.
Existing EU Contribution: No
Period to implement the commitment: from 01-09-2014 to 30-06-2016