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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.

KINDRA Steering Committee Meeting & World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden

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The most recent KINDRA meeting, that took place in Stockholm on the 29th of August, was dedicated in particular to discuss the progress and the first results of WP3 – Trend & Gap Analysis, to evaluate the functionalities of the advanced search options of the European Inventory of Groundwater Research (EIGR) for aforesaid analyses, to review the status of country reports, all while agreeing on the planning for the forthcoming months and discuss the long-term future (maintenance and update) of the project inventory (EIGR) – a very important outcome of the KINDRA project.

KINDRA Steering Committee discussion on the future of its groundwater inventory (EIGR)

Consortium members discussing the first results of WP3 – Trend & Gap Analysis

LPRC’s team presented the state-of-the-art of the communication & dissemination activities related to the project and highlighted the steps to be taken to improve (a final boost) the project during the last semester. As part of the ongoing dissemination efforts, project partners were present in the World Water Week in a booth jointly hosted by FREEWAT H2020 project throughout the week (29th-31st of August).

FREEWAT & KINDRA booth at the World Water Week, Stockholm

You can meet KINDRA at the end of September at the EIP Water Conference organised in Porto and/or at the 44th Annual Congress of IAH to be held in Dubrovnik.

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FEMP annual reunion in Sopron, Hungary

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The Federation of European Mineral Programs (FEMP) annual reunion took place in Sopron, Hungary, organized by the University of Miskolc. FEMP organizes and co-ordinates the European Mining, Minerals a nd Environmental Program (EMMEP) for students in Resource Engineering, Mining and Geotechnical Engineering, Mineral Processing, Recycling and related academic studies. Tamás Miklovicz, as a former student of the European Geotechnical Environmental Course (EGEC), organized by FEMP, participated in the event. Every year a reunion is organized to gather former students, academics and industry rep resentatives for an informal weekend with networking and interesting events

The reunion kicked-off with a guided city tour and welcome reception on Thursday, 31st of August. Next day, after the FEMP industrial members business meeting, the reunion was opened by the organiser, Ferenc Mádai. The morning session included a workshop, discussion about the Minatura2020 project, which was introduced by Zoltán Horváth. Before the workshop, Tamás Miklovicz had a one-slide addition, providing an outlook on Horizon 2020 opportunities and its best examples, including UNEXMIN, INTRAW and CHPM2030 projects.

During the workshop, the participants were divided into three groups, based on the factors that define Mineral Deposits of Public Importance (MDoPI): Level of Geological Knowledge, moderated by Zoltán Horváth, Environmental and Social aspects, moderated by Tamas and Economic considerations, moderated by Ákos Csicsek. Such factors are Background Geological Information & Knowledge – known or unknown mining/quarrying districts, Impact of Past Exploitation Activities in a Specific Tract, Social Acceptance, Compatibility With Other Land Uses, Contribution of an Active Operation to the Added-Value Chain of Mineral Products, etc. The participants realised that these factors are rather complex and many of them can have a positive or negative effect on future mining activity. The participants explained some of their experience at mines they were working. As a conclusion, there are many good examples where mining operation, surface or underground, is very welcome by the local community, however generally speaking, there are a lot of work needs to be done to harmonize mining operation with other land uses.

In the afternoon session, the best master thesis have been presented from the just graduated students. One of the highlight is the Development of a comprehensive system Model for a Magnetic Density Separation Process Line from Wokke Wijdeveld, which dealt with a novel type of separation technique, using water based magnetic ferrofluid, mixed with grains of different density. The mixture is put into an electromagnetic field that creates a vertical density gradient, which separates the particles, based on their type (density), so it can be divided into its base products.

During the whole event, a poster section was open with UNEXMIN, KINDRA, CHPM and INTRAW posters, allowing the participants to get familiar with these interesting projects.

The reunion closed with a very relaxed bike tour and BBQ. But EIT Raw Materials certified courses continue, highly recommended for any student interested in the mineral raw material sector.

Next year see you in Delft!

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La Palma Research Centre presents multiple projects at EGU 2017

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The 2017 European Geoscience Union’s (EGU) General Assembly took place in Vienna at the Austria Centre from Monday the 24th to Friday the 28th of April. At this large geoscientific gathering, at which over 12,000 participants from academia and industry attended, La Palma Research Centre colleagues took the opportunity to exhibit and present six research and innovation projects.

On the first day of the conference, Cameron Sword opened the Energy, Resources and Environment session with an oral presentation on the European Commission’s Horizon2020 co-funded ¡VAMOS! (Viable Alternative Mine Operating System) project. During the 15 minute presentation,  Cameron explained the overall concept and technological components of ¡VAMOS!, its vision for a future of cost-efficient low-impact European mine excavation, and the results of the project to date. After the presentation, multiple questions from the audience were answered, whilst a stimulating debate ensued on the functionality of the system components.

Cameron Sword narrates an interactive video showing the operation of ¡VAMOS!

Immediately following the ¡VAMOS! presentation, Luís Lopes gave a detailed and highly technical presentation on UNEXMIN (Underwater Explorer for Flooded Mines) – a related EC H2020 project in which mining and robotics scientists are collaborating to create a world-first autonomous underwater mapping robot for use in flooded mines. Luís’ UNEXMIN presentation was highlighted as a ‘significant interest’ topic for the EGU 2017 conference, being selected as one of the most interesting to attend during the week-long conference.

Luís Lopes delves into the details of UNEXMIN during his presentation at the ERE1.1 session

Then, following an engaging presentation on the INTRAW (International Observatory for Raw Materials) project by Chris Keane from the American Geosciences Institute, LPRC’s colleague, Marco Martins gave an insightful talk on foresight methodology and raw materials case studies. Marco’s presentation focussed on work done during the ongoing MICA (Mineral Intelligence Capacity Analysis) project, including a review of data and stakeholders needs in the field of raw materials.

Marco Martins outlines the nature of the foresight case-study data used during the MICA project

As a bonus presentation during the morning ERE session, Tamás Miklovicz gave an ad hoc talk on the new H2020 CHPM2030 (Combined Heat, Power and Metal extraction) project. Concluding with an intriguing and extensive discussion from an engaged and interested audience, Tamás proceeded to hold an open poster session on Thursday afternoon on this innovative combined geothermal energy/mineral-extraction project.

Tamás Miklovicz comfortably explains CHPM to just one of many similar interested onlookers in the main hall at the Austria Centre during EGU2017

Also presented in the main hall on Thursday were the KINDRA (Knowledge Inventory for Hydrogeology Research) and La Noche de los Volcanes projects. Cseko Adrienn explained the purpose and details of the KINDRA project and the recent opening of its signature EIGR (European Inventory on Groundwater Research), whilst Ariadna Ortega took charge of La Noche de los Volcanes by explaining the statistical results and main outcomes of this four-year geoscience outreach project which was comprised of three separate sub-projects at various locations across the seven Canary Islands.

The KINDRA poster explaining the newly launched European Inventory on Groundwater Research

In short, the EGU General Assembly was a successful week of company and project dissemination and promotion, and LPRC looks forward to attending the conference again next year in Austria!

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KINDRA Progress Meeting, Rome

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On the 1st and 2nd of March 2017, LPRC colleagues Ariadna Ortega & Adrienn Cseko attended a KINDRA progress meeting at the University of Sapienza in Rome. Amongst other things, project members discussed the technicalities related to the opening of the European Inventory of Groundwater Research – the very first online tool exclusively dedicated to groundwater research & knowledge. In addition, partners reviewed the possible set of tools to be used for gap analysis, and the steps which could be taken for more efficient project communication and dissemination. LPRC are proud to host the next KINDRA meeting with the JPE (Joint Panel of Experts) in La Palma in June!

LPRC’s H2020 projects in Budapest Water Summit 2016

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The Hungarian capital hosted  the “Budapest Water Summit 2016 (BWS 2016)”  between the 28th – 30th of November 2016. This was an important event that resulted from cooperation efforts made by the Hungarian Government and the World Water Council.

 The University of Miskolc exhibited several projects in which LPRC is involved, namely Kindra, CHPM2030 and UNEXMIN. The main goal of this space was to display internationally recognised water management technologies.

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Kindra, CHPM2030 and UNEXMIN projects’ booths in the University of Miskolc’s area.

It is extraordinary, when the projects in which you are involved get to be recognised by no other than the President of the Republic of Hungary (see photo below)! Also, it is important that the technologies, actions and decisions discovered and developed in these European projects get to all the necessary stakeholders, represented also by people in higher positions.

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President of Hungary, János Áder, visits the exhibition booth of University of Miskolc and their projects: on the left, Tamás Madarász, on the center, Péter Szűcs, Dean of the Faculty of Earth Science and Engineering and on the right, János Áder, the President of Hungary.

 

Scientific week in the Canary Islands: “Semanas de la Ciencia y la Innovación en Canarias”

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LPRC is part of the “Semanas de la Ciencia y la Innovación en Canarias”, a scientific event that is occurring during this week over all the Canary Islands. Starting from yesterday to the end of the week, LPRC have three exhibitions running (KINDRA project, UNEXMIN project, CHPM project and the general Horizon2020 program) and today, tomorrow and Thursday will have presentations on the UNEXMIN project.

Today, Tuesday, LPRC received about 60 students from a scientific and technological high school from Villa de Mazo, in the island of La Palma, where the company is located. The presentation made by Luís (Project Manager in the UNEXMIN project) and Ariadna (Communications Manager) covered the most important aspects of the project that is developing a new multi-robotic system for the autonomous exploration on 3D mapping of flooded mines. Images and videos from the work that the UNEXMIN team has been developing were also shown to the audience.

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Luís and Ariadna answering questions from the young students.

The reception of the presentation was very good (both the information and the pictures and videos), with many of the youngsters being interested, asking questions and wanting to learn more about the project.

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The students that were present in the UNEXMIN presentation, on Tuesday.

The exhibitions from LPRC are located in Calle Real 21 in Los Llanos de Aridane and can be visited during the day by anyone.

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KINDRA Copenhagen meeting with the Joint Panel of Experts
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Project partners introduced and discussed the latest results of the KINDRA project with the Joint Panel of Experts. Adrienn participated during this meeting from LPRC.

KINDRA_Copenhagen_21-23_June_2016

 

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