Highlights on European Raw materials Sustainability

The main objective of HERawS was to raise awareness and provide training for different audiences – students, researchers, policymakers, and enterprises – on the challenges linked to critical raw m...

The main objective of HERawS was to raise awareness and provide training for different audiences – students, researchers, policymakers, and enterprises – on the challenges linked to critical raw materials (CRMs). These are essential for the green and digital transition but remain largely unknown in their environmental, social, and geopolitical dimensions. Our goals were to: • Strengthen the role of CRMs in higher education by developing content tailored to engineers and future policymakers. • Create accessible tools to better understand the trade-offs involved in technological choices and to integrate CRMs into sustainability analysis. • Broaden the dissemination of reliable knowledge, so that policymakers and civil society have access to clear, science-based information to feed public debate. • Promote cooperation across disciplines and stakeholders (materials science, political science, enterprises, public institutions), in order to combine approaches and reinforce collective expertise on this strategic issue. The project aimed to provide the means to evaluate and anticipate risks related to CRMs, ensuring that technological and policy choices are genuinely sustainable.