KINDRA Final Conference, Brussels

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Over the past 3 years the La Palma Research has been part of KINDRA project, aimed to gather and standardise groundwater knowledge and research across Europe by means of a EU-wide assessment of existing groundwater-related practical and scientific knowledge based on a new Hydrogeological Research Classification System (HRC-SYS), created by the project team. This classification is supported by a web-service – the European Inventory of Groundwater Research (EIGR) –acting not only as a knowledge repository but also as a tool to help identify relevant research topics, existing research trends and critical research challenges.

Panel discussion with Johan Stierna (DG Research and Innovation), Elisa Vargas (WG C, DG Environment) and Isabel Fernandez (EFG)

The project’s Final Conference in Brussels (BE) the 27th of February 2018, hosted in the Académie Royale de Bruxelles was co-organised by LPRC. The conference provided an overview of the work and measures developed, gathering feedback on the results obtained and planning for the future, so that the project outcomes -namely the EIGR- can be sustained after the end of KINDRA. Several member of the European Commission, as well as EASME, the International Association of Hydrogeologists and many more important stakeholders in science, research and groundwater were present and actively involved in Q&A and debates through the conference.

KINDRA Project ran for three years organised by a Consortium of nine partners, twenty linked third parties and ten members of the Joint Panel of Experts, making a total of twenty EU-countries collaborating. La Palma Research is proud to be part of this very important mission for the future of groundwater research.

Closing of Minatura 2020 Project

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The Horizon2020 Minatura 2020 project oficially finished on the 31st of January. After three years, the project consortium was able to delineate and start discussions around a very important topic: land-use planning for geological resources with the definition of  MDoPI – Mineral Deposits of Public Importance.

The core of the work developed in Minatura 2020 was divided in 5 work packages:

WP1: Land use assessment – First, it was necessary to understand what are and what will be the sources of conflict between mining and other land uses (agriculture, hunting, etc.). This work was done based on existing methodologies and approaches at EU and national level.

WP2: Development of a harmonised mapping framework – With the data gathered from WP1 it was possible to start creating a mapping framework based on detailed qualifying conditions for classifying “mineral deposits of public importance”. The development of the mapping framework took into account appropriate existing mineral planning policies of countries considering the access to mineral deposits. This allowed for possible MDoPI areas to be mapped.

WP3: Regulatory framework – The objective of WP3 was to define the possibilities to incorporate the concept of MDoPI established previously, into the regional, national and EU levels of minerals land use planning. The idea was to explore and establish regional, national and EU-level regulatory criteria for the safeguarding of MDoPI at different levels.

WP4: Demonstration and pilot-testing of developed methodology at case-study level – In WP4 the methodology developed was tested in practical terms in some countries, such as Hungary and Slovenia, taking into account different national policy scenarios and their impacts.

WP5: Stakeholder involvement on mineral deposits of public importance – Finally, the always important involvement with different stakeholders was achieved by WP5. Here, the partners held national consultation workshops to get information and opinions from relevant stakeholders (Environmentalists, Governments) in the application of the MDoPI framework.

(Photo credit: Anita Stein)

Developing a mechanism to protect and safeguard mineral deposits in Europe proved to be a challenging task due to the many divergences present through all European countries and to challenges in land-use planning. However, the Minatura 2020 project was able to create a definition and establish different sets of criteria that can be applied by different countries to protect their mineral deposits for future use. This is the main conclusion coming from the Minatura 2020 final meeting that was held in Brussels on the 10th of January.

To obtain more information, including project publications, please visit the Minatura 2020 website!

Closing of INTRAW Project

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After three years of work, building networks, and identifying collaboration opportunities, the INTRAW project came to an end on January 31. During the first part of the project, Work Package 1 produced a contextual analysis of the selected five technologically advanced raw materials countries – Canada, Japan, USA, South Africa, and Australia. In parallel three transactional reports on the key thematic areas ‘Research and Innovation’, ‘Education and Outreach’, and ‘Industry and Trade’ were developed. Work Package 2 started off with the development of a ‘Strategic plan to international knowledge-sharing’. Based on this document, four ‘Action Plans’ were written, outlining the objective of enhancing international cooperation in the four thematic areas, which are, as mentioned above ‘Research and Innovation’, ‘Education and Outreach’, and ‘Industry and Trade’ and in addition ‘Management, recycling, and substitution of critical raw materials’. The work in this work package was finalised with a roadmap on the implementation of the action plans and a report on the crosscutting synergies between the four action plans, which was developed by LPRC. This work examined interlinkages between actions with the aim of maximizing their effect, while minimizing the cost and it identified tangible cooperation opportunities with the reference countries based on a workshop with experts and representatives of these countries. A major outcome of the project is the planning for and the launch of the INTRAW International Raw Materials Observatory accomplished in Work Package 3. The project ended with a final meeting of the consortium on La Palma!

All the deliverables and other interesting related publications can be downloaded from the INTRAW Repository on http://www.intraw-repository.eu

(Photo credit: Nelson Cristo)