VERAM Final Conference showcases 2050 Roadmap for Raw Materials

The Final Conference of the VERAM Horizon2020 project took place in Brussels on 17 April 2018. This project brought together diverse stakeholders – including five European Technology Platforms (ETPs): Sustainable Minerals Resources, Forest, Construction, Sustainable Chemistry and Advanced Materials – to produce a medium-term (2030) Vision and a longer-term (2050) Strategic Research and Innovation Roadmap for raw materials. The conference discussed the work of the project, its methodologies and its results including the report ‘Research and Innovation Roadmap: A Sustainable and Competitive Future for European Raw Materials’.

The VERAM approach covered all raw materials: both the biotic (for example forestry & natural rubber) value chain and the metal, minerals and aggregates value chain. It looked to reinforce and underpin greater sustainability, economic resilience and technology leadership in the EU. The Vision 2030-2050 sees increased EU production to ensure a base load supply of materials, development of globally competitive sustainable technologies, investment both in and outside Europe to ensure access to resources, the creation of new jobs across the raw materials sector, and contributing to the replacement of jobs lost in other parts of the economy and through automation. It was clear that there will remain a need for primary material resources despite the expected transition to a more circular economy.

  

Four priorities, 178 action areas

Four priority areas were identified and form the core of the Roadmap considerations:

1. Fostering a sustainable supply of raw materials to feed new and existing value chains
2. Resource-efficient processing for raw materials
3. Raw materials in new products and applications, and
4. Closing material loops by maximising the recycling of products, buildings and infrastructure.

The VERAM roadmap includes analysis of the five ETPs’ Strategic Innovation and Research Agendas (SIRAs), the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on Raw Materials SIRA, public consultations and workshops.

The project also had established an inventory of current Member State, EU and global raw materials policies and R&D funding calls and had surveyed EU Member State funding bodies with 13 Member States providing insights. The inventory database is available on the VERAM web portal.

This highly inclusive process resulted in the formulation of some 178 Research & Innovation Areas (RIAs) across the four identified priorities. Remarkably within the RIAs over 50% overlapped between the two categories of raw materials: biotic on one side and metals, minerals and aggregates on the other side.

Multiple speakers at the final conference applauded the work of the project; not least the integration of diverse input from such a wide range of major stakeholder highlighting the importance of raw materials issues to European competitiveness, jobs and growth. However, it was also noted that the sectors needed to do more to integrate societal interests.

This JRC video shows how lack of raw materials could inhibit the low carbon economy.

Wide dissemination

It is now vital that the results of the project are disseminated as widely as possible to ensure the recommendations and ideas are brought to fruition as soon as possible. The report will be presented to funding authorities at European, national and regional levels, including initiatives such as the BioBased Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI JU) and the Sustainable Process Industries for Resource and Energy efficiency (SPIRE) PPP, to ensure inclusion of VERAM ideas in forthcoming research and innovation calls.

You can download the VERAM Final Report here.

A New Vision for EU Materials Research and Innovation

Yesterday (11 April 2016) saw the launch of the website for the VERAM project. This exciting new Horizon 2020 funded project will produce a new Vision and Roadmap for European raw materials research and innovation. VERAM is a unique coordination project that links two European Technology Platforms (ETPs) in minerals and forestry and two European Research Areas (ERA-NETs). And SusChem is involved too. With a total budget of €1.4 million to be implemented over a period of 30 months, the project kicked off in December 2015 and will complete its work by 31 May 2018.

The VERAM project will produce a Vision and Roadmap for European Raw Materials to 2050 based on the coordination of raw materials research and innovation. At the heart of this collaboration are two of our fellow ETPs: ETP SMR on Sustainable Minerals Resources and FTP (Forest Technology Platform). They are supported in their efforts by the ECTP (European Construction Technology Platform) represented by Università Politecnica dells Marche - UNIVPM, EuMaT (Advanced Materials ETP) represented by Vlaamse Instelling voor Technologisch Onderzoek - VITO, and by SusChem represented by the European Chemica Industry Council - Cefic.

In addition the ERA-NETs WoodWisdomNet (represented in the project by Fachagentur Nachwachsende Rohstoffe – FNR – from Germany) and ERA‐Min (represented by the French National Centre for Scientific Research – CNRS) will link to national research funding activities and four well-known research institutes - D’Appolonia SPA from Italy, Germany's Forschunszentrum Juelich - FZ Juelich, Fundacion Technalia Research and Innovation - Tecnalia from Spain, and Teknologian tutkimuskeskus VTT Oy - VTT from Finland - complete the partnership.

This unique and formidable partnership provides VERAM with a vast range of expertise including downstream applications and additional knowledge on secondary raw materials.

VERAM vision
VERAM will look to the future economic development of the European Union (EU) and will deliver a long-term 2050 vision and roadmap for non-food, non-energy raw material including wood, metals, industrial minerals and aggregates that can enable economic growth and restructuring and technological leadership along relevant materials value chains.

The project will define a range of targets with a defined timeline and identify actions to achieve these. To achieve the Vision 2050, the VERAM partnership will review existing foresight studies, the Strategic Research Agendas of various ETPs, consult with representatives of major stakeholder networks along the different raw material value chains, with the ERA-NETs, as well as the European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT) Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KIC) on Raw Materials.

VERAM aims to provide an umbrella and coordination function for raw materials related research and innovation activities that address security and sustainability of supply from EU and non-EU sources. It also hopes to create new synergistic effects by linking biotic and non-biotic resources. And it intends to develop strategies to bring these innovations to market and develop recommendations for future research and innovation related policy actions.

The project aims to include all relevant aspects of non-food, non-energy raw materials related research and innovation. It challenges the current compartmentalisation and fragmentation in these areas and aims to increase synergies and facilitate uptake of research results.

The project will also encourage capacity building and transfer of knowledge. It expects to provide an innovation reference point for the EIT’s activities on Raw Materials, to coordinate the network involved in the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on Raw Materials Commitments and other relevant proposals funded under Horizon 2020.  VERAM will provide a platform for identifying gaps and complementarities and enable their bridging.

Impact
VERAM is designed to address a range of societal challenges through a more sustainable and resource-efficient use of raw materials and to help reap the benefits of the growing European circular economy.

VERAM aims to provide a comprehensive master plan by:

• improving co-ordination of EU and Member States' research and innovation programmes and other funded activities;
• stimulating research and innovation with the highest possible societal value and return on Research and Technology Development investment to create new enabling technologies and materials;
• optimising the economic leverage effect of investment in research and innovation.

The VERAM project will embark on activities to boost research and innovation and efficient industrial exploitation of raw materials. The impact of the project will be visible in the short term (1 to 5 years) by strengthened cooperation between the different stakeholders groups involved in the EIP Raw Materials, in the medium term (5-15 years) under the umbrella of the agreed 2030 vision and roadmap draft documents and on the long term (15 to 35 years) through the 2050 Roadmap.

More information
The VERAM (Vision and roadmap for the European raw materials) project is coordinated by ETP SMR via EuroGeoSurveys with communication and dissemination activities managed by Cefic. More information on all the project partners can be found here. For more information on the project, please email the project.