European Training Network for the Design and Recycling of Rare-Earth Permanent Magnet Motors and Generators in Hybrid and Full Electric Vehicles (DEMETER)

Gwendolyn Bailey, a KU Leuven researcher in the EU H2020 DEMETER project, presented her work at the high-level 7th Trilateral EU-US-Japan Conference on Critical Materials (October 12, 2017) in Pittsburgh, USA.

As part of “Artefact 2018: This Rare Earth - Stories from Below”, a unique symposium on the Social License to Operate with respect to the mining and recycling of critical metals is taking place on February 21, 2018 (Leuven).

During the annual JRC EU4Facts conference in Brussels, the EU MSCA-ETN DEMETER video was awarded as a showcase example on how science can contribute to evidence based policy making.

On September 13, 2017, the EC finally published its updated list of Critical Raw Materials. SIM² KU Leuven will continue to provide recovery/recycling technology for the following CRMs: Sb, Co, Ga, Ge, In, PGMs, REEs and Sc.

SIM² KU Leuven has just launched “SOLVOMET”, an Industrial Service Centre whose mission is to support its industrial partners in the development of more sustainable solvometallurgical separation processes and new mining chemicals.

On the 13th of July Darmstadt, Germany, will be the venue for a milestone Symposium on the importance of critical metals for green energy technologies. The Symposium features a multitude of lectures by renowned experts.

In June 2017 the EIT RawMaterials network has approved the GloREIA KIC Added Value project, which stands for “Towards a Global Rare Earth Industry Association”. The funding for this EIT RawMaterials project is 300,000 EUR.

In the framework of the EU EREAN and DEMETER projects on Rare Earth recycling, a new Policy Brief “ERES 2017: Six Lessons Learned” was launched in order to stimulate (policy) debate about the Europe's Rare Earth supply.

The EU Horizon 2020 SOCRATES project has now just released a new animation video about “Recovering valuable metals from industrial waste”. The film is presented by two SOCRATES PhD students.

The IMAGINE project develops and implements master programmes on sustainable materials with 5 European partner universities. The SUMA programmes integrate a solid technical basis with courses on entrepreneurship and innovation.