On 29 November 2016, the EU hosted the 6th EU-US-Japan Trilateral Conference on Critical Materials, which focused on strategies for the sustainable supply of critical raw materials. The conference was split into four sessions:
Session 1: “Criticality and risk analysis” – focused on material flows and stocks, raw materials data, information for policy-making, and methodology for assessing critical raw materials.
Session 2: “Novel Materials by Design” – focused on materials research and modelling, and substitution of critical raw materials.
Session 3: “Circular Economy” – focused on recovery of critical raw materials from different waste streams, reuse, recycling, and quality standards for secondary raw materials.
Session 4: “Capacity Building” – focused on infrastructure, knowledge and skills, competency networks and industry-academia collaboration
Given the participation and opportunities for those involved in CRM research to network, it was confirmed that the EU-US-Japan Trilateral initiative will continue, with the next Trilateral meeting scheduled to take place in the United States.
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