ERA-MIN 2 in the spotlight at EU Raw Materials Week

During the week of November 15-19, the European Commission is promoting Raw Materials Week 2021, in which the ERA-MIN 2 Final Conference and the Final Seminar of the 2017 Call projects, completed between 2020 and 2021, will be the highlight events.

ERA-MIN 2 is coordinated by FCT and is an ERA-NET (European Research Area Network), a funding instrument that promotes the creation of European research networks aggregated around a scientific area. The specific objective of ERA-MIN 2 is to support research and innovation projects in the area of non-agricultural and non-energy raw materials, namely construction, industrial minerals and metals. This network involves 21 public research funding organizations from 13 EU countries/regions, one EU associate country (Turkey) and 4 non-EU countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile and South Africa). Through 3 transnational Calls , it has given the raw materials community the opportunity to apply for globally coordinated funding, gaining access to cutting-edge knowledge and new markets while reducing the fragmentation of R&I funding in Europe and globally.

Scheduled to last from 2016 to 2021, ERA-MIN 2, which will be followed by ERA-MIN 3 (2020-2025), also coordinated by the FCT, now presents at the end of this cycle of research activities the objectives and results of the projects it has funded, showing the responses produced to the needs of industry in terms of primary and secondary resources and the implementation of a circular economy approach based on the substitution of critical raw materials.

These ERA-MIN 2 events will be attended by representatives of projects funded during the network's five years of activity, and representatives of the 16 projects funded under the 2017 Call now concluded, will have the opportunity to disseminate the results and promote their use by industry, civil society or policymakers.

The President of the FCT's Board of Directors, Helena Pereira, will open the conference on November 18 at 13:00, and the first day's proceedings will end at 18:00. On November 19, the program runs from 12:00 to 15:30. The entire conference can be watched online, free of charge, subject to prior registration.