As a consequence of change in hydrological cycles and the increase of exposed goods, the risk of landslides is globally growing all over the world. As a consequence, short-time landslide prediction is a fundamental tool for risk mitigation. To this aim, real-time monitoring and interpretation methods aiming at a full exploitation of the available landslide information are needed, including further development of sensor technology and use of advanced numerical modeling. The most commonly used warning parameters are direct measurements of slope displacement and pore-water pressures. However, recent research on landslide controlled by slope hydrology has shown that other parameters (e.g. soil moisture) can be used and other methods (e.g. electrical resistivity tomography, electrical spontaneous potential) are available, which might give indications on triggering even before an actual displacement is measureable and thus could possibly be used as physical precursors for short-term warning. The CNRS – Ecole et Observatoire des Sciences de la Terre (EOST) and the Geological Survey of Austria – Geophysical Division (GBA) started successfully to evaluate time-lapse resistivity measurements for monitoring changes in water content/flows in landslides (Travelletti et al., 2012; Supper et al., 2014; Gance et al., 2015) at different monitoring sites. At the same period, CNRS also started to establish the French Observatory on Landslides (OMIV: omiv.unistra.fr), which task is the long term monitoring and data sharing of landslide parameters (geodesy, hydrology, seismic). Results from these projects proved that electrical resistivity monitoring can be successfully applied to detect changes in water storage and to understand water circulation in complex landslide bodies. However, especially for clayey landslides, this method is only applicable with limitation, since the resistivity of clays shows almost the same values as the resistivity of the saturated soil (15-20 O.m). Consequently, the change in water content expressed in the electrical resistivity is difficult to identify. Therefore the extension of the concept of resistivity to Induced Polarization (IP) (both in the time and spectral domains) is proposed in order to better understand the relationships between physical and hydro(geo)logical properties of the slope material. To understand the landslide triggering mechanisms, surface and in-depth deformation have to be monitored. Up to now, most of the landslides monitoring sites are equipped with GNSS receivers and total station benchmarks at the surface or inclinometers at depths, which provide only point (1D) information and/or have limitations at high displacement rates. To solve interpretation ambiguities and to account for spatial changes, not only point information, but also horizontally and vertically (borehole) distributed displacement/strain observations are necessary. New approaches are suggested in the project, namely temperature and strain monitoring at high frequency with Fiber-Optic (FO) cables both at the surface and in boreholes, sensing of surface deformation with Ultra-High Resolution (UHR, 20 cm) optical images (time-lapse ground based cameras). The combined application of these methods for landslide monitoring is very rare and has not been tested rigorously. Further, the joint interpretation of electrical resistivity, soil temperature, hydrological and strain data need to be supported by coupled multi-physical modelling in order to quantitatively establish petrophysical relationships for several slope configurations, material properties and groundwater conditions. The applicability of the approach will be evaluated at three landslide sites representative of different hydrological forcings: La Valette (South French Alps; Alpes-de-Haute-Provence), Lodève (South Central Massif, Hérault) and Ampflwang/Hausruckwald (Oberösterreich).

Renewable hydrogen combined with large scale underground storage enables transportation of energy through time, balancing out the impacts of variable renewable energy production. While storing pure hydrogen in salt caverns has been practiced since the 70s in Europe, it has never been carried out anywhere in depleted fields or aquifers. Technical developments are needed to validate these two solutions. As subsurface technical feasibility studies for a future hydrogen storage in depleted field or aquifer will be site-specific, as for other geology related activities, HyStories will provide developments applicable to a wide range of possible future sites: the addition of H2-storage relevant characteristics in reservoir databases at European scale; reservoir and geochemical modelling for cases representative of European subsurface, and tests of this representativeness by comparing it with results obtained with real storage sites models; and lastly an extensive sampling and microbiological lab experiment programme to cover a variety of possible conditions. Complementarily, techno-economic feasibility studies will provide insights into underground hydrogen storage for decision makers in government and industry. Modelling of the European energy system will first define the demand for hydrogen storage. Environmental and Societal impact studies will be developed. For a given location and hydrogen storage demand, a high-level cost assessment for development of each of the competing geological storage options at that location will be estimated, and the sites will be ranked based on techno-economic criteria developed within the project. Finally, several case studies will enable consideration of the implementation of potential projects, notably by considering their economic interest. This will provide substantial insight into the suitability for implementing such storage across EU and enable the proposition of an implementation plan.

The Multi-source and Multi-scale Earth observation and Novel Machine Learning Methods for Mineral Exploration and Mine Site Monitoring (MultiMiner) project develops novel data processing algorithms for cost-effective utilization of Earth Observation (EO) technologies for mineral exploration and mine site monitoring. MultiMiner unlocks the potential of EO data, including Copernicus, commercial satellites, upcoming missions, airborne and low altitude as well as in situ data, to support the entire mining life cycle including mineral exploration, operational, closure and post-closure stages. This is achieved by creating generic but highly innovative machine learning solutions which do not require any or only little ground truth data. The project focuses on new EO based exploration technologies for critical raw materials (CRM) to increase the probability of finding new sources within EU thereby strengthening the EU autonomy in the area of raw materials. MultiMiner EO based exploration solutions have extremely low environmental impact, and are thus socially acceptable, economically efficient and improve safety. The project’s solutions for mine site monitoring increase the transparency of mining operations as environmental impacts can be detected as early as possible and digital information of the currently unexploitable raw materials can be stored for future generations. The applicability of the developed algorithms is demonstrated in 4 European test sites. MultiMiner is a pan-European consortium consisting of 12 partners and 1 associated partner from research institutes, academia, consulting businesses and mining industry with interdisciplinary backgrounds in geology, remote sensing and machine learning. The members come from six EU member states which represent mining regions across Europe with diverse geology with evident potential for various types of CRM resources and thousands of operational and closed mines.

START project primary objective is to build an innovation ecosystem in the European Union (EU) based on the development of sustainable and economically viable thermoelectric (TE) waste heat harvesting systems to be applied in heavy industry and in maritime industry as well as primary power source for off-grid sensors and IoT devices. This objective will be achieved by incorporating abundant sulphides (mainly tetrahedrite mineral series), at present an environment hazard in mine tailings, collected in five European countries, in the production of advanced sulphide p-type TE thermoelements. In contrast, current commercial TE devices incorporate p-type and n-type TE thermoelements that are produced from expensive and rare elements, namely tellurium, which is predominantly sourced in China. The impact of START project approach on endorsing a more sustainable and resilient EU comes from three inputs. First, by reducing EU?s dependence on primary critical raw materials. Secondly, through the promotion of circular economy processes that will create value in EU by building a strategic ecosystem based on a high-abundant mineral. Just recently, it was demonstrated by our team that the mineral was amenable to processing to single phase p-type tetrahedrite. Thirdly, by the production of TE energy harvesting systems offering a contribution to the reduction of fossil fuels consumption with a great impact on the increase of the overall efficiency of energy production and consumption systems, as well as on the reduction of the greenhouse gas emissions. For that, START project aggregates research organizations, with strong background and knowledge on geology, materials science and renewable energies, and industrial organizations that guarantee the entire production and exploitation supply chain.

In order to secure the sustainable access to primary and secondary raw materials and particularly Critical Raw Materials (CRMs) in the EU, there is a need for an expert advice to better understand the value chains of the raw materials screened in the CRMs assessment. Making this information freely available, through the SCRREEN knowledge database and the EC Raw Materials Information System, will support decision-making at the EU level on the CRM strategies. In the continuation of SCRREEN, SCRREEN2 will develop and strengthen the SCRREEN expert network in order to cover all raw materials screened in the CRM 2020 assessment. The work was initiated in 2019 to support the EC (validation workshop and creation of an expert database). The SCRREEN network gathers today expertise on primary and secondary resources; production, including exploration, mining, processing, recycling and refining; substitution of CRM; raw materials markets; future demand and supply; materials flows; socio-economic analysis. It covers also strategic value chains and end-use sectors, including batteries, e-mobility, renewable energy, electronics, defence and aerospace. Thanks to clustering and cooperation with other projects/initiatives, SCRREEN2 will develop this network to fill the existing gaps and to mobilize it on two axes through dedicated workshops. First, in order to improve data and knowledge on all screened raw materials, SCRREEN2 will update on a regular basis the raw materials factsheets. It will also publish sector-oriented outlook reports analysing the future supply and demand of raw materials, policy and technology gaps and innovation potential along the raw materials value chains. A work-plan, updated every 6 months, will allow SCRREEN2 to flexibly support the Commission in policy-making related to CRM in general or linked to specific applications or sectors; and to support as well the Commission in the organisation of relevant events.