CIRAN 3rd Consortium Meeting (Bologna, Italy)

From September 30 to October 3 2024, the CIRAN project team gathered in Bologna, Italy, for the 3rd in-person Consortium Meeting following Brussels and Lisbon. An engaging opportunity for project partners to share the progress and results with the External Experts and the European Commission’s Project Officer, the team reviewed the project implementation and planned the next steps for the second half of CIRAN. This four-day event brought together key stakeholders and provided valuable insights to shape the project’s future direction.

The first two days were dedicated to maximising the time with CIRAN External Experts. The starting point was a workshop initiated with an engaging parliamentary hearing exercise, focused on key assumptions for permitting a mine in an environmentally protected area. This set the stage for partners to present the latest updates on their respective Tasks, with expert feedback proving invaluable in reckoning results from the project’s first half. The afternoon session featured a group exercise aimed at refining a permitting decision tree. These discussions were aimed at reaching a consensus on the permitting decision-making process based on each of these priorities, further enhancing collaboration between partners and experts. The day concluded with a delightful city tour of the historical sites of Bologna led by a local guide, followed by a group dinner to continue engaging in insightful conversations and further the connections among the CIRAN community.

The second day included a field trip to the Vena del Gesso Romagnola Regional Park, recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2023. The group met with park authorities at Rocca di Riolo Terme, where presentations covered the park’s protected area designations, sustainability efforts, and the extraction activities of the Saint-Gobain group at the Monte Tondo Quarry. A guided tour of the active quarry and the Saint-Gobain production facilities focused on plasterboard manufacturing from the extracted gypsum helped illustrate the balance between biodiversity preservation and economic activities for regional and national development.

The Project Review Meeting with the European Commission’s Project Officer (PO) and an academic external evaluator happened during the third day. CIRAN’s results from the first half of the project were presented in detail, highlighting milestones achieved and ongoing key strategic objectives. The project received overall approval and commendations.

On the last day the Consortium partners discussed the next steps and strategies to achieve project objectives by December 2025, ensuring effective implementation of the remaining tasks for the completion of CIRAN as well as identifying the open opportunities to continue working on this complex balance.

In the CIRAN project the team of La Palma Research Centre is responsible for mapping the connections between policy decisions and drivers of change for mining activities, with the help of foresight tools and engagement with experts, as well as leading the development and implementation of communication and dissemination actions towards stakeholders and general public.  For LPRC, work will continue with the development of the CIRAN 2035 scenarios.