6th EU-US- Japan Trilateral Conference on Critical Materials

Unpublished

(From ec.europa.eu)

More than 100 participants attended the 6th EU-US- Japan Trilateral Conference on Critical Materials.

The theme of the 2016 Conference was "Strategies for Sustainable Supply of Critical Raw Materials". It was a good opportunity for researchers to network and for the relevant organisations (METI, NEDO, DOE and EC) to reconfirm the importance and relevance of such dialogue both at policy and at technical level. It was therefore agreed to continue the series of Trilateral Conferences on Critical Materials.

Session 1: "Criticality and risks analysis": material flows and stocks analysis; methodology for assessing critical materials; raw materials data and information for policy making.

Session 2: "Novel materials by design": substitution, materials research and modelling, fundamental understanding of the development of new material solutions with a reduced or completely eliminated critical raw materials content, while maintaining or enhancing the performance of the materials, components and products.

  • Prof. Kazuyuki Kuroda: "The promotion of strategic basic research on “element strategy” in Japan towards sustainable society".
  • Presentation of Prof. Fotis Katsaros: "Development of novel, high-performance hybrid TWV/GPF automotive after treatment systems by rational design: substitution of PGMs and rare earth materials".
  • Presentation of Dr Greg Mulholland: "Materials Informatics: artificial intelligence driven materials development and optimisation".

Session 3: "Circular economy" with a particular emphasis on CRMs recovery from different waste streams (urban mining, mining waste, industrial waste etc….), reuse and recycling, quality standards for secondary raw materials.

Session 4: "Capacity building to secure sustainable supply of CRMs": infrastructure, knowledge and skills, competency networks, industry-academia collaboration.

See the full agenda.