We aim to contribute to the European Green Deal, the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Horizon Europe objectives through the development of a Geological Service for Europe, which focuses on the planet itself: the earth beneath our feet. The subsurface holds indispensable resources for European industries and opportunities to decarbonise our economy, but also requires careful management to preserve a healthy and safe living environment for Europe’s citizens. Structurally addressing the EU dimension in geological services is needed because the scale of many societally and economically relevant geological features exceeds that of individual countries. Addressing transnational and continental-scale problems requires innovation, standardisation, harmonisation as well as a shared vision. We aim to build the Geological Service for Europe based on Europe’s best practices and implement the Service with the backing of the Union. Existing geological surveys, the national custodians of geological information, have amassed huge legacies of data and information that are difficult to merge. This project will continue the harmonisation and standardisation effort initiated in earlier projects. We aim to create joint services that can support acceleration of the energy and climate transitions, as well as a larger critical mass of intra-European cooperation through convergence of our research agendas, as key steps to increase the amount and quality of results we are aiming for. A common thread in this project is innovation in ways in which subsurface information is conceptualised, organised, visualised, delivered and translated to the needs of a wide range of audiences, and the methodologies to achieve this. Building on the groundwork laid in the GeoERA program, we will scale up and out, not only scientifically, but also in involving national stakeholders in the network, in order to create support and eventually obtain a mandate for a European Service on a permanent basis.

Primary and secondary raw materials are fundamental to Europe’s economy and growth. They represent the most important link in the value chain of industrial goods production, which plays a prominent role as a source of prosperity in Europe. However, as stated in the call, there exists to-date no raw materials knowledge infrastructure at EU level. The Mineral Intelligence Capacity Analysis (MICA) project contributes to on-going efforts towards the establishment of such an infrastructure by projects such as ProMine, EURare, Minventory, EuroGeoSource, Minerals4EU, ProSum, I2Mine, INTRAW, MINATURA2020 and others. The main objectives of MICA are: - Identification and definition of stakeholder groups and their raw material intelligence (RMI) requirements, - Consolidation of relevant data on primary and secondary raw materials, - Determination of appropriate methods and tools to satisfy stakeholder RMI requirements, - Investigation of (RMI-) options for European mineral policy development, - Development of the EU-Raw Materials Intelligence Capacity Platform (EU-RMICP) integrating information on data and methods/tools with user interface capable of answering stakeholder questions, - Linking the derived intelligence to the European Union Raw Materials Knowledge Base developed by the Minerals4EU project. The MICA project brings together a multidisciplinary team of experts from natural and technical sciences, social sciences including political sciences, and information science and technology to ensure that raw material intelligence is collected, collated, stored and made accessible in the most useful way corresponding to stakeholder needs. Furthermore, the MICA project integrates a group of 15 European geological surveys that contribute to the work program as third parties. They have specific roles in the fulfilment of tasks and will provide feedback to the project from the diverse range of backgrounds that characterizes the European geoscience community.

The ProSUM project will establish a European network of expertise on secondary sources of critical raw materials (CRMs), vital to today’s high-tech society. ProSUM directly supports the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on Raw Materials and its Strategic Implementation Plan calling for the creation of a European raw materials knowledge base. Data on primary and secondary raw materials are available in Europe, but scattered amongst a variety of institutions including government agencies, universities, NGOs and industry. By establishing a EU Information Network (EUIN), the project will coordinate efforts to collect secondary CRM data and collate maps of stocks and flows for materials and products of the “urban mine”. The scope is the particularly relevant sources for secondary CRMs: Electrical and electronic equipment, vehicles, batteries and mining tailings. The project will construct a comprehensive inventory identifying, quantifying and mapping CRM stocks and flows at national and regional levels across Europe. Via a user-friendly, open-access Urban Mine Knowledge Data Platform (EU-UMKDP), it will communicate the results online and combine them with primary raw materials data from the on-going Minerals4EU project. To maintain and expand the EU-UMKDP in the future, it will provide update protocols, standards and recommendations for additional statistics and improved reporting on CRM’s in waste flows required. ProSUM – “prosum” is Latin for “I am useful” – provides a factual basis for policy makers to design appropriate legislation, academia to define research priorities and to identify innovation opportunities in recovering CRMs for the recycling industry. The EUIN enables interdisciplinary collaboration, improves dissemination of knowledge and supports policy dialogues. A consortium of 17 partners, representing research institutes, geological surveys and industry, with excellence in all above domains will deliver this ambitious project.

ROBOMINERS will develop a bio-inspired, modular and reconfigurable robot-miner for small and difficult to access deposits. The aim is to create a prototype robot that is capable of mining underground, underwater or above water, and can be delivered in modules to the deposit via a large diameter borehole. In the envisioned ROBOMINERS technology line, mining will take place underground, underwater in a flooded environment. A large diameter borehole is drilled from the surface to the mineral deposit. A modular mining machine is delivered in modules via the borehole. This will then self-assemble and begin its operation. Powered by a water hydraulic drivetrain and artificial muscles, the robot will have high power density and environmentally safe operation. Situational awareness and sensing is provided by novel body sensors, including artificial whiskers that will merge data in realtime with production sensors, optimising the rate of production and selection between different production methods. The produced high-grade mineral slurry is pumped to the surface, where it will be processed. The waste slurry could then be returned to the mine where it will backfill mined-out areas. ROBOMINERS will deliver proof of concept (TRL-4) of the feasibility of this technology line that can enable the EU have access to mineral raw materials from otherwise inaccessible or uneconomic domestic sources. This proof of concept will be delivered in the format of a new amphibious robot Miner Prototype that will be designed and constructed as a result of merging technologies from advanced robotics, mechatronics and mining engineering. Laboratory experiments will confirm the Miner’s key functions, such as modularity, configurability, selective mining ability and resilience under a range of operating scenarios. The Prototype Miner will then be used to study and advance future research challenges concerning scalability, swarming behaviour and operation in harsh environments.