Tuesday September 7th, 2010: 15:45 – 17:15  

Reflecting the new European 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth (COM(2010) 2020) and the EC Raw Materials Initiative (COM(2008) 699) the session should target innovative technological solutions for reducing Europe's dependency on foreign sources of raw materials and commodities, including solutions for more resource efficient economy giving Europe a competitive advantage.

Questions:

- What are the challenges related to raw materials resources for Europe?
- How to decouple the economic growth from the use of resources
- Which are the strategies to secure access of the EU industries to the necessary raw materials?
- Where research and innovation is the right tool to implement those strategies?
- R&D success stories resulting in more efficient use of and securing the access to raw materials resources for Europe

Chair

• Abraão Carvalho, European Commission DG Enterprise

Speakers

• Derk Bol, Program Manager, Materials innovation institute M2i (Netherlands)
• Henryk Karas , advisor of KGHM Management Board on R&D and European Cooperation and Chairman of the European Technology Platform on Sustainable Mineral Resources (Poland)
• Göran Bäckblom, Chairman of Steering Committe,  ETP Sustainable Mineral Resources (Sweden)
• Michael Heine, SGL Carbon Group and EuMaT ETP on "Advanced materials and technologies - a key element for green and competitive economy"