TalTech Raw Materials Station founded by the TalTech Department of Geology plays a role in awareness our knowledge of minerals. Our mission is to enable sustainable competitiveness for the minerals, metals and materials sector along the value chain by driving innovation, education and entrepreneurship. 

To achieve above we are running several activities: organizing seminars and conferences; our researchers taking a lead in scientific projects; educating the next generation of engineers; building the future via Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter Schools for PhD candidates; visiting industrials sites and companies to learning their need and providing the solutions.

EIT RawMaterials, initiated and funded by the EIT (European Institute of Innovation and Technology), a body of the European Union, is the largest consortium in the raw materials sector worldwide. Its vision is to develop raw materials into a major strength for Europe. Its mission is to enable sustainable competitiveness of the European minerals, metals and materials sector along the value chain by driving innovation, education and entrepreneurship.

TalTech is core partner of EIT Raw Materials from 2018, the EIT Raw Materials partnership unites more than 120 core and associate partners and 180+ project partners from leading industry, universities and research institutions from more than 20 EU countries. Partners of EIT RawMaterials are active across the entire raw materials value chain; from exploration, mining and mineral processing to substitution, recycling and circular economy. They collaborate on finding new, innovative solutions to secure the supplies and improve the raw materials sector in Europe. There are six regional Innovation Hubs in Belgium, Finland, France, Italy, Poland and Sweden, called Co-Location Centres (CLCs) that represent different regional ecosystems connecting industry, research and education.

TalTech belongs into Innovation Hub CLC Baltic Sea. Hub operates in Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia. Lithuania with its offices in Espoo, Finland. The ecosystem around the Innovation Hub excels especially in design and manufacturing of tools, machinery and equipment as well as in metals processing and modelling. Innovation Hub CLC Baltic Sea will focus on infrastructure networking and development especially in metallurgical and mineral processing test infrastructure, substitution of critical raw materials in extreme conditions, applications and catalysts, as well as modelling tools for material efficiency and circular economy.

Get in touch with Veiko Karu (veiko.karu@taltech.ee), Senior Project Manager for EIT to get overall information about TalTech activities in the EIT Raw Materials network.

 

Winter school 2020 is the place for people who bring their ideas into the market. It is organized by TalTech in cooperation with Riga Technical University and Kaunas Technical University in the framework of EIT Raw Materials. In a 3-day intensive program, be ready for inspiring educational speeches, hands-on seminars, full of innovative ideas, pitching competition.

We invite you to take part in our program and learn how to turn your scientific knowledge into green business ideas from industry experts. The aim of this event is to give participants information on renewable energy and recycled materials and inspire them to come up with business ideas and bring them into life.

What are the topics?

Main theme of the winter school is identifying new processes and business models in renewable energy and recycled materials with the focus on mobility, energy and electronics sectors. We will share a detailed program of each day very soon!

Who are we looking for?

We are welcoming everyone to register for the event who is interested in Greentech, Circular Economy and Renewables until the 25th of November. Join us and come together to create novel solutions for the Green Future. Grab your friends, and be part of a new generation of #innovators!

Sign up as an individual or as a team, with or without an idea  in this link.

What you should expect from this event?

• To learn how to commercialize your ideas in the key area of competition and value creation in the Energy and Resources Sector 

• To join a network of entrepreneurial minds working together to boost innovation in the Energy and Resources sector, and extend your professional network.

Be part of a new generation of #innovators!

#fromSciencetoBusiness

Winter School 2020: Renewable Energy and Materials Recycling concluded after three busy days of collaboration, networking, and sharing best practices. The event was organized by the TalTech Department of Geology in collaboration with the Kaunas University of Technology and Riga Technical University.

During the 3 days, we had participants joining us from Estonia, Germany, Lithuania, and Latvia either online or on spot at our entrepreneurship center Mektory. Also, 5 outstanding speakers and mentors turned those three days into an inspiration!

Participants had an opportunity to learn best practices from industry experts, listen to their success stories, ask them questions, and find out how to turn their ideas into green business. It is worth mentioning that our host Mayri Tiido gave pitch training to participants and it was followed by workshops creating their business model canvas with the mentors. Here are some of the feedbacks from the participants:

"I loved the energy of the event host! Also, stories from real business cases".

"I liked networking, interaction and possibility to involve personally during the on spot event".

"The event was full of inspirational talks and I liked it. Additionally, I really appreciate  "how to make BMC" and "how to pitch topics" were presented in the event".

We had green industry business ideas mainly based on materials recycling. It was good to know that people came together from four different countries to learn how to do business without harming the environment. At the end, three different corporations from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania gave useful information about entrepreneurship programs to encourage the audience and future innovators to go further with their ideas.

Thank you once again to our inspirational speakers, participants and collaborators who made this Winter School 2020 a success!

Metals, minerals and natural materials are part of our daily lives. We are using them every day, when going to work, school or we spend time with our family. We can find these minerals in our smartphones, kitchen equipment etc. Without the novel technology, we cannot see our everyday life, therefore access to resources and sustainability is key for the raw materials sector. Achieving resource security requires action to diversify supply from both primary and secondary sources, reduce dependencies and improve resource efficiency and circularity, including sustainable product design. This is true for all raw materials, including base metals, industrial minerals, aggregates and biotic materials, but is even more necessary when it concerns those raw materials that are critical for the industry.

Therefore TalTech Raw Materials Station is a place where we are building the future, where we understanding the importance of raw materials in our everyday life.

RE-SOURCING

Responsible Sourcing is becoming a reality for more and more businesses, NGOs, and policymakers. Everyone is striving to keep ahead of rapidly evolving ecological and social needs, company practices, business models, government regulations, and initiatives spearheaded by civil society, etc. 

In response to the growing challenge of responsible sourcing, the Vienna University of Economics and Business, together with 11 international partners, started the RE-SOURCING Global Stakeholder Platform in 2020.

Over the period of four years, the RE-SOURCING Platform will help decision-makers in industry, public policy and civil society to learn together from innovative business cases for Responsible Sourcing, Create Responsible Sourcing Industry Roadmaps for renewable energy, mobility and electronics in the EU and Build a global Responsible Sourcing Community by connecting existing networks & stakeholders and expanding their base.

SUMEX

In order to foster more, but sustainable mineral production in the EU, SUMEX (SUstainable Management in EXtractive industries) will establish a sustainability framework for the extractive industry in Europe. It does so by considering the Sustainable Development Goals, the European Green Deal, as well as EU Social License to Operate considerations and will involve stakeholders from industry, government, academia and civil society backgrounds from all across the EU. This framework is then applied across the extractive value chain to analyse the mineral, as well as relevant economic, environmental and social policy frameworks of the EU, member states and selected regions along five focus areas - socio-economic and environmental impact assessments, land use planning, health and safety, reporting official statistics and permitting processes/policy integration-to find, or build, where needed, good practices or tools for an open access toolkit, which will be embedded in a broader Community of Practise (CoP) and which forms the basis for capacity building. This CoP will consider relevant stakeholder groups, with a focus on permitting authorities, across the EU, providing a digital platform and using a series of workshops and webinars.

Following the EIT Regional Innovation Scheme (EIT RIS) Strategy, core partners of EIT RawMaterials Hub – Regional Center Baltic are leading technology universities across Baltic – Riga Technical University, Kaunas University of Technology and Tallinn University of Technology.

EIT RawMaterials RIS Hub Baltic is running engagement activities in its regional environment (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) for industry partners across the supply chain, researchers, policy shapers, entrepreneurs, students. Moreover, it is connecting research and science entrepreneurs with industry partners to increase innovation capacity and industrial competitiveness in the region.

Better Geo Edu 2.0

BetterGeoEdu will develop teaching material using BetterGeo – a modification of the immensely popular game Minecraft. Teaching material will be tailored for primary schools, and cover innovation themes of the EIT RM KIC like mining, processing & recycling, complete with a train-the-trainer programme for teachers. BetterGeoEdu brings a unique and innovative way of teaching raw materials to primary schools using a game known and loved by millions.

IFTS-CircularSociety

IFTS Circular Society is a pilot VET course in the field of Higher Technical Education on Circular Economy and Societies. Organised in Ferrara (IT), equips 20 European young people, which are neither in employment nor education or training. The innovative pedagogical approach is reflected in the close-link between business and academia and in the Dual System (work-based training and experiential learning). Competencies are validated by IV EQF.

InPhos

Phosphorus(P) is a critical raw material and its sustainable management needs to be implemented in all European regions. In InPhos, a working group of experts from developed countries and the Baltic region will jointly develop a P strategy for the Baltic countries, via the transfer of knowledge and design of modern solutions for a sustainable use of P. InPhos will also raise awareness among stakeholders on the implications of P scarcity in Europe.

MineHeritage

This project will build knowledge and capacity about state-of-the-art circular economy and resource efficiency practices - in order to ensure that future graduate engineers have the skills to develop more sustainable processes in the raw materials value chains. Partners from both countries with state-of-the-art CE and Resource Efficiency practices (Finland and Sweden) and RIS countries (Estonian, Italy and Poland) will work together to develop a course curriculum and digital course content.  The capacity of RIS partners to use the course to educate engineering students and support industry will also be built by training and supporting these partners.

Raw Matters Ambassadors at Schools 3.0

RM@Schools 3.0 promotes a wide dissemination action on RM-related themes in Schools and Society through strategic European partnerships among Research, School, and Industry. Students 10-19 years old will become RM Ambassadors to a wider community, since they will be involved in experiments with RM-related hands-on educational kits, excursions in industries, and science dissemination by using both their native and the English language.

SmartPlaCE at schools

SmartPlaCE@Schools will develop creative learning material on Circular Economy concepts and business models for highschool education, suing gamification methods. As follow-up of FosterERM@Schools, this project will also develop a virtual environment hosting the downloadable Risk&Race@schools game, together with a range of complementary learning materials. In addition, the platform will capture feedback from schools on their needs and experiences.

TravelEx

TravelEx will set up an exhibition providing accessible and general information about mining and raw material in society. The exhibition will be available for rental by museums and science centres for a period of about 4 to 6 months. This exhibition targets the wider society and children aged from 8 to 14-17 years old, which will gain knowledge on mineral resources.

 

Circular Economy and Raw Material Competence for Sustainable production

Based on a need for raw material solutions for a sustainable European mobility industry, PhD students are trained in the CE COSP course. As future experts in manufacturing and material science they develop a circular perspective, innovation competence and an entrepreneurial mind set focusing on recyclability of new materials. The course combines blended learning with practical parts in industry and training on entrepreneurship and innovation.

Circular Economy Entrepreneurship in System Integrated Metals Processing

CEE-SIMP is a Doctoral-level course offered by a consortium of six prestigious European universities dealing with aspects of sustainable production of metallic raw materials, circular economy and entrepreneurship. The course consists of three main components: a series of online lectures offered by experts, working cases from industrial partners to be solved by international teams of students and a venture-creation Summer camp.

Masters course in circular economy for materials processing 

This project will build knowledge and capacity about state-of-the-art circular economy and resource efficiency practices - in order to ensure that future graduate engineers have the skills to develop more sustainable processes in the raw materials value chains. Partners from both countries with state-of-the-art CE and Resource Efficiency practices (Finland and Sweden) and RIS countries (Estonian, Italy and Poland) will work together to develop a course curriculum and digital course content.  The capacity of RIS partners to use the course to educate engineering students and support industry will also be built by training and supporting these partners.

ADMA2 - Practical training between Academia and Industry during doctoral studies

The proposal promotes practical level training of PhD students in companies and research institutes in Europe in the EIT Raw Materials topic areas. The benefits of the activities are several. The companies obtain motivated and skilled doctoral students with most updated knowhow, and the students achieve experience relevant to their career building.

VR Mine - Integrating Virtual Reality into European Mining Education

VR-Mine develops a virtual reality environment mimicking different underground mining situations in order to deliver a highly informative and interactive tool. It will be used at European universities that offer MSc courses in mining related fields. VR-Mine will be developed with the Mittersill mine (Austria) and initially implemented in Tallinn (Estonia) and the European Mining Course in Aachen (Germany), currently applying for EIT-Labeling.

 

SmartHub - smart courier field data IoT radio network & big data analytics

SmartHUB is the strategic alliance for machinery & mining engineering, building an IoT ecosystem, through that data can be collected on machine performance to help clients create and deploy machines that are more suited to the task at hand. smartHUB can thus help secure better hours, improved efficiency, and better life expectancy of mining machines as well as processes.

SAFEME4MINE - Preventive Maintenance system on safety devices of Mining Machinery

Mining machinery is strategic for mining and critical in terms of occupational health of the workers. SAFEME4MINE is a preventive maintenance system of mining machinery focused on safety devices. The project will develop a system (software-based solution and a measurement toolkit). Together with a precise inspection procedure, the system will give as result recommendations and corrective measures contributing to the overall maintenance strategy.

ReviRis - Revitalising Post-Mining Regions

ReviRis is an evaluative toolbox for decision-makers. The project contextualizes current practices in civic engagement and decision-making focusing on involvement, and engagement of different actors and stakeholders in the planning/design process in the revitalization of post-mining land. The evaluative criteria are based on social, economic and biophysical attributes, possibilities and constraints, and tested using RIS region example cases.