Engineering education at the heart of the Raw Materials Value Chain

EIT Raw Materials has the mission to reinforce Europe’s innovation capacity by preparing the entrepreneurs and innovators of tomorrow. By fully integrating the three sides of the knowledge triangle (education, research and industry), the EIT Raw Materials aims at boosting the innovation process: from idea to product; from lab to market and from student to entrepreneur.
A key mission of the EIT Raw Materials is to educate young professionals and specifically engineers and scientists by breaking the barriers of classical disciplines. The so-called T-shaped professional will have a strong entrepreneurial mindset and combine an in depth knowledge of his own discipline with a sound understanding of the challenges appearing along the whole raw materials value chain, such as exploration, extraction and processing of primary resources, recycling of secondary resources and substitution of critical and toxic materials. It is essential that these T-shaped professionals understand their role within the value chain as actors of a more circular economy.
Every educational activity organized under the umbrella of the EIT Raw Materials (RM) Academy will therefore make sure to involve all stakeholders of the raw materials value chain and to contribute to raising awareness with respect to the societal function of raw materials and the related supply and availability challenges.
To achieve these missions and create a long lasting impact, the RM Academy aims to innovate in terms of teaching, which includes:
• The promotion of problem-based learning, self organisation and learning by doing.
• The offer of an open learning environment and a series of online courses.
• Enabling a high degree of mobility of students and professionals.
• Facilitating access to experimental platforms and pilot plants for hands-on training
• Adopting a strong multidisciplinary approach (e.g. joint courses across sectors)
• Thinking beyond boundaries and systematically exploring and generating new ideas
• Transforming innovations into feasible business solutions
• Joint curriculum development
Critical reflection, peer review processes as well as assessments and collegial discussions under the roof of the EIT Raw Material Academy will be used for continuing quality development of the programs.