HARMONY project aims at strengthening the independency and the competitiveness of European industry, enabling a resilience value chain of raw materials by developing and validating at pilot scale an innovative, green and safe closed-loop recycling process of Rare Earth Elements (REEs) from End-of-Life (EoL) NdFeB permanent magnets. The recycling loop encompasses the collection and dismantling of EoL NdFeB magnets and WEEE scrap, the recovery of REE metals through an indirect recycling process, the production of recycled NdFeB powder via three direct recycling methods, the manufacturing of magnets from the recycled powder, and the validation of the recycled magnets in end-user applications. Collection and recycling steps will be implemented in 8 pilot plans reaching a final TRL of 6-7. The combination of direct and indirect recycling technologies will allow dealing with any scrap containing NdFeB in any form (sintered or bonded magnets). The recycled NdFeB magnets will be used in the same applications as the magnets made from primary powder, since they will exhibit comparable properties. Additionally, they will be recyclable via the same routes. A Dissemination, Exploitation, and communication Master Plan (DECMP) will be developed to maximize the impact beyond the lifetime of HARMONY project. HARMONY will build upon existing standards during the development of the novel products, ensuring compatibility with market conditions and increasing transparency for prospective customers. The economic, environmental and social viability of these processes will be demonstrated via Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) and Life-Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA). Furthermore, social innovation including citizen dialogue, policy issues, standardization and ethics will be considered to overcome the non-technological barriers that make difficult to introduce these novel technologies at the short term in the market.

Smart Exploration consists of a research and application team supported by a group of technologically advanced SMEs and the mining industry. The consortium will firstly focus on developing cost-effective, environmentally-friendly tools and methods for geophysical exploration in highly challenging brownfield areas where exploration expenditure is greater and the return time (from exploration to production) shorter. A second focus point will be long-term greenfield exploration with the aim of reducing exploration costs, implying significant improvement in development rates and a sustainable supply of raw materials at the same rate as the whole world wishes to grow. Therefore, new innovative ideas will also be tested for greenfield exploration to increase the potential of finding new major deposits of relevance to the EU. The overall objectives of the tasks are to develop (1) cost-effective and innovative exploration instruments comprising airborne, surface, downhole and in-mine modular-based geophysical systems, (2) new exploration targets through multidisciplinary and integrated approaches, (3) novel reprocessing and handling of legacy exploration data that will generate additional information and targets for detailed exploration, and (4) validating all these developments, to maximize their impacts, at relevant exploration sites covering greenfield, near-mine and in-mine areas using known targets. We anticipate that these developments will not only generate new technological and methodological markets for the EU, but will also result in improved exploration strategies in the EU and beyond. The nature of the consortium, the partners involved, and the commodities that are considered will result in highly useful exploitation of the developments envisaged in the project and a guarantee of their successful use beyond the project life.

This action supports physical and blended mobility of higher education students and staff from EU Member States and third countries associated to Erasmus+ to any country in the world. Students in all study fields and cycles can take part in a study period or traineeship abroad. Higher education teaching and administrative staff can take part in professional development activities abroad, as well as staff from the field of work in order to teach and train students or staff at higher education institutions.

Im ersten Projektjahr der neuen ERASMUS+-Generation führten wir an der TU Bergakademie Freiberg Erasmus+-Mobilitäten in den Schienen Studierendenmobilitäten (Studium und Praktikum) und Personalmobilitäten (Lehre und Weiterbildung) durch. Ziel war es dabei u. a. unseren Studierenden eine längere internationale Erfahrung zu ermöglichen und sie auf den immer mehr globalisierten Arbeitsmarkt vorzubereiten. Für unsere Dozenten spielt insbesondere die europäische Vernetzung und die Internationalisierung der Lehre eine Rolle. Dabei verfolgen wir seit Jahren das Ziel, die Outgoing-Zahlen zu steigern und die Sichtbarkeit des Programms zu erhöhen. Im Projektjahr 2014 nahmen insgesamt 64 Studierende/Dozenten an einer Mobilität teil, davon entfallen 40 auf Studium, 12 auf Praktika, 10 auf Personalmobilität Lehre und eine auf Personalmobilität Weiterbildung.

RECYCALYSE will disrupt the energy storage market through novel and recyclable catalytic materials made of abundant elements to be used in the most promising type of electrolysers to date, i.e. proton exchange membrane electrolysers (PEMEC). To overcome the main barriers that remain for PEMEC, namely high capital cost and use of critical raw materials (CRM), and to boost the economic competitiveness of EU stationary storage production, two main objectives have been defined. First, we will develop and manufacture highly active sustainable oxygen evolution (OER) catalysts that will reduce or eliminate CRMs, thus decreasing CO2 emissions and reducing cost. This will be achieved using novel supports, which we will also develop during the project, and by substituting CRMs with earth abundant elements such as Ni, Mn and Cu. Secondly, we will develop a recycling scheme for PEMEC catalysts, electrodes and overall system, thus reducing or avoiding the dependence on materials imports in Europe, implementing the recovered elements in the new developed catalysts, thus reaching a full circular economy. To meet these objectives RECYCALYSE combines world-leading research institutions and innovative and R&D performing SMEs specialised in the in hydrogen, materials engineering and recycling. The novel catalysts prepared with the new green processes along with the PEMEC prototype that we will design and build, will situate EU in an excellent position regarding energy storage. We will produce hydrogen with a high purity, and its transformation into energy will greatly reduce CO2 emissions. Furthermore, the novel low-CRM catalysts and developed materials recycle processes will strongly contribute to fulfil EU 2020 and 2050 targets. In summary, RECYCALYSE will result in a substantial reduction in the levelised costs of energy storage, leading to an improved technical and economic competitiveness of EU energy storage production suitable to store large amount of energy with at cost.