Summer and Winter Schools

• 38 participants from academia and industry successfully completed the programme and earned EIT RawMaterials certificates.
• One new startup was created directly through the summer school.
• The programme obtained the EIT RawMaterials Label, a European quality mark awarded to programmes with excellence in innovation, entrepreneurship, and industry relevance.

• Viktoria Voronova & Pavlo Lyshtva — Tallinn University of Technology
• Davor Kvocka — Slovenian National Building and Civil Engineering Institute
• Maris Sinka — Riga Technical University
• Michail Beliatis — Aarhus University

• Introduction to Life Cycle Assessment
• Modelling basics using OpenLCA
• Result interpretation
• Development of an LCA case study
• Webinars & group presentations (mandatory)

• Project system definition
• Product system & flowchart
• Modelling of flows and processes
• LCA impact assessment
• Result evaluation & feedback

• Life Cycle Costing (LCC)
• Social LCA (S‑LCA)
• EPD & LCA software tools (GaBi, SimaPro)

• Business process mapping
• Sustainable product development
• Business model innovation for sustainability

• Project submission: 30 September (online)
• Final seminar: October (online)

• Application deadline: 22nd April 2026
• Registration link: https://lnkd.in/dHgCZmq8
• Contact: karin.robam@taltech.ee

The PRO-SLO project aims to equip PhD students and mining professionals with essential industry skills for sustainable development in the mining and raw materials sectors, focusing on mastering the complexities of the Social Licence to Operate (SLO). The program bridges the gap between raw materials operations and economic, social, and ethical discourse, training future industry leaders to navigate SLO challenges.

Targeting PhD candidates, the project integrates innovative teaching methods, including field excursions, behavioural experiments, and challenge-based assessments, with mentorship from industry experts to enhance learning.

Aligned with the European Digital Education Action Plan, the program is offered in both asynchronous and synchronous formats, providing a structured learning pathway. Upon completion, participants will gain the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to address SLO complexities, benefiting both the raw materials industry and civil society while strengthening the industry's social license.

Partners:

• AGH University of Krakow
• HELLAS GOLD S.A.
• Luleå University of Technology (LTU)
• Mineral and Energy Economy Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences (MEERI)
• Montanuniversität Leoben
• University of Zagreb – Faculty of Mining, Geology and Petroleum Engineering (UNIZG-RGNF)
• Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg (TUBAF)
• Technische Universität Graz (Graz University of Technology)

SUMMED-PV is a Summer School in Photovoltaics aimed at training scientists and engineers in the making, using, and recycling of sustainable and cost-efficient raw materials for future photovoltaic energy. Funded by EIT Raw Materials, SUMMED-PV is open to Master’s students, PhD students, and researchers from industries and academia who are into Photovoltaics.

SUMMED-PV will make the attendees understand the importance of Raw Materials as a key enabler of Photovoltaics development in the European ecosystem and a pre-requisite to achieving the targets of the EU Green Deal.

SUMMED-PV will explain how and why some materials are classified as “critical” based on natural resource distribution, economic and geopolitical factors, and - in a more modern view - environmental factors. Together we will discuss which measures are being put in place, and the associated bottlenecks, to mitigate the supply risk, including diversification of the raw materials supply, recycling of end-of-life modules, substitution of materials and components, and optimization of the device fabrication process.

All the lectures will be challenge-based and aimed at stimulating new ideas and initiatives towards the market. The interest in business ideas development and start-up setup will be stimulated by the interaction with experts operating in the SUMMED-PV partners, including the industrial and start-up companies, who have specific experiences in the topic.

Partners

• University of Milano- Bicocca
• University of Torino
• University of Salerno
• University of Trieste
• Hochschule Anhalt
• Bitron S.p.A.
• ERION

Prices

• 150 € + VAT | early bird registration by 15 June 2024
• 220 € + VAT | regular registration by 31 July 2024
• waived fee for National Italian PhD students in Photovoltaics

Registration Period

Now Open! until 31 Jul 2024 (or when quota for 70 places has been filled)

ELMO-LION is a new European battery technology and innovation 6 ETCS PhD course and a Summer School Co-funded by EIT RawMaterials. The objective is to train the next generation of scientists and engineers in the interdisciplinary and rapidly accelerating field of Li-ion batteries.

Course contains three modules:

• The 1st module “Online Lectures” where students can watch 8 lectures for 2 hours each provided by famous experts of battery area. Lectures are related to synthesis of the battery materials, spectroscopic study, first principles modelling, diagnostic and operation, reuse and recycling, battery market. 
• The 2nd module “Project Work” where 10 topics for projects are chosen from actual needs of industrial partners. Students should prepare ideas how to solve provided cases analyzing available literature sources and own ideas. Work will be carried out under supervision of mentors and proceeded in remote format. Discussion about given case should be written as a report. 
• The 3rd module “Summer School” which will take place in Padova, Italy for 5 days from Monday 29th of July to Friday 2nd of August. Students will participate in lectures and seminars from industrial and academy partners, study how to apply proposal for Startup funding. Also, students should develop projects under industrial and academic supervising.

Partners

• Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology
• Alto University
• Politecnico di Milano
• Delft University of Technology
• University of Padova
• University of Eastern Finland
• University of Helsinki
• University of Oulu
• Suomen Malmijalostus Oy 
• Metso Finland Oy
• EMPA - Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology
• Centro Ricerche Fiat S.C.p.A.

Prices 

• Price for module “Online Lectures”: 50 € (payment is required only for receiving credits, participating in this module without credits is for free)
• Price for module "Project Work”: 50 €
• Price for module "Summer School": 300 €
• Price for the full ELMO-LION course: 350 €
• Price for the full ELMO-LION course partner organizations: 250 €

Registration period (opening & deadline): closed

PhD BalticTeach is addressed to doctoral students interested in research areas such as advanced materials, sustainability, circular economy, and technology commercialization. The programme empowers aspiring researchers with a systems-thinking approach and challenge-based learning, mastering the commercialization and scaling of research results for successful market entry.

During the programme, three PhD schools will be organized, each of them containing:

• Individual online learning courses (approx. 60 hours)
• A three-day in-person PhD school (approx. 30 hours)
• Incubation programme (approx. 60 hours)

Students have the opportunity to apply and participate in one or more face-to-face PhD schools. Each of them will focus on different topics and take place at specific times from 2024 to 2025:

Summer PhD School: Market and the Customer

• Dates: 4-6 June 2024
• Place: Riga, Latvia
• Format: hybrid
• Registration period (opening & deadline): closed

Autumn PhD School: The Business Case

• Dates: 12-14 November 2024
• Place: Tallin, Estonia
• Format: hybrid
• Registration period (opening & deadline): 12th August - 8th September

Spring PhD School: Investor Readiness

• Dates: 11-13 March 2025
• Place: Kaunas, Lithuania
• Format: hybrid
• Registration period (opening & deadline): January 2025

Before participating in a face-to-face school, students must complete an individual online learning course, including systems-thinking, sustainable materials, circularity, and challenge-based content. If students decide to participate in all three schools, they must complete the online learning course only once before starting the first in-person school. After each face-to-face school, the incubation programme will provide students with inspiring online lectures, practical seminars, and one-on-one mentoring sessions. Participation in each of the schools will provide students with the possibility of earning 6 ECTS credits.

Project partners

• Riga Technical University Science and Innovation Centre
• Tallinn University of Technology
• Kaunas University of Technology
• Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche
• Technical University of Kosice
• Geological Survey of Slovenia