NERC SoS Minerals Programme: overview and update
Adrian J. Boyce
Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre, East Kilbride, Glasgow, G75 0QF, Scotland
adrian.boyce@glasgow.ac.uk
SoS MinErals
The Natural Environment- and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Councils’
Security of Supply of Minerals Resources initiative is a >£7M, five-year programme that will
provide the research capacity and evidence base to reduce, not increase, supply risk of E-tech
elements, governed by the imperative to decrease environmental impact. E-tech elements are
defined in this programme as those that are essential for the environmental technologies and
applications that will allow for cleaner energy and more efficient energy usage.
The programme, which was launched in February 2013, has two over-arching science goals:
1. Understand E-tech element cycling and concentration in natural systems.
2. Understand how to predict and mitigate the environmental effects of extraction
and recovery of E-tech elements.
These goals will be addressed through coordinated research projects targeting novel research
into high priority E-tech elements, their environmental context and wider implications of their
extraction and recovery. The programme will develop an interdisciplinary community
building on UK strengths, linking to industry and related international activities.
SoS Minerals will evolve in two stages. Firstly a Catalyst Grant stage will allow participants
to build research partnerships across disciplines, and develop research strategies with the
potential for national/international impact. Successful Catalyst Grant teams are likely to have
exclusive eligibility to submit full Research Grant proposals in the next, main phase of the
programme. The main Research Grants will be encouraged to include international
collaboration. Industry and agency partnerships will be vital to the development and success
of the programme leading to conceptual and technological advances with measurable
environmental benefits. Indeed, demonstrable, contributing industrial partnerships will be an
essential assessment criterion of the Research Grant phase.
Catalyst Grant applications are currently being reviewed, and successful grants will
commence in September, 2013. The main Research Grants stage will run from 2014-2018.
The primary foci for the SoS Minerals Programme are the following E-tech elements:
Co, Te, Se, Nd, In, Ga and HREE
For more information on the Programme, including the detailed Science Plan, visit:
http://www.nerc.ac.uk/research/programmes/minerals/events.asp