Primary and secondary raw materials are fundamental to Europe’s economy and growth. They represent the most important link in the value chain of industrial goods production, which plays a prominent role as a source of prosperity in Europe. However, as stated in the call, there exists to-date no raw materials knowledge infrastructure at EU level. The Mineral Intelligence Capacity Analysis (MICA) project contributes to on-going efforts towards the establishment of such an infrastructure by projects such as ProMine, EURare, Minventory, EuroGeoSource, Minerals4EU, ProSum, I2Mine, INTRAW, MINATURA2020 and others. The main objectives of MICA are: - Identification and definition of stakeholder groups and their raw material intelligence (RMI) requirements, - Consolidation of relevant data on primary and secondary raw materials, - Determination of appropriate methods and tools to satisfy stakeholder RMI requirements, - Investigation of (RMI-) options for European mineral policy development, - Development of the EU-Raw Materials Intelligence Capacity Platform (EU-RMICP) integrating information on data and methods/tools with user interface capable of answering stakeholder questions, - Linking the derived intelligence to the European Union Raw Materials Knowledge Base developed by the Minerals4EU project. The MICA project brings together a multidisciplinary team of experts from natural and technical sciences, social sciences including political sciences, and information science and technology to ensure that raw material intelligence is collected, collated, stored and made accessible in the most useful way corresponding to stakeholder needs. Furthermore, the MICA project integrates a group of 15 European geological surveys that contribute to the work program as third parties. They have specific roles in the fulfilment of tasks and will provide feedback to the project from the diverse range of backgrounds that characterizes the European geoscience community.

The ProSUM project will establish a European network of expertise on secondary sources of critical raw materials (CRMs), vital to today’s high-tech society. ProSUM directly supports the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on Raw Materials and its Strategic Implementation Plan calling for the creation of a European raw materials knowledge base. Data on primary and secondary raw materials are available in Europe, but scattered amongst a variety of institutions including government agencies, universities, NGOs and industry. By establishing a EU Information Network (EUIN), the project will coordinate efforts to collect secondary CRM data and collate maps of stocks and flows for materials and products of the “urban mine”. The scope is the particularly relevant sources for secondary CRMs: Electrical and electronic equipment, vehicles, batteries and mining tailings. The project will construct a comprehensive inventory identifying, quantifying and mapping CRM stocks and flows at national and regional levels across Europe. Via a user-friendly, open-access Urban Mine Knowledge Data Platform (EU-UMKDP), it will communicate the results online and combine them with primary raw materials data from the on-going Minerals4EU project. To maintain and expand the EU-UMKDP in the future, it will provide update protocols, standards and recommendations for additional statistics and improved reporting on CRM’s in waste flows required. ProSUM – “prosum” is Latin for “I am useful” – provides a factual basis for policy makers to design appropriate legislation, academia to define research priorities and to identify innovation opportunities in recovering CRMs for the recycling industry. The EUIN enables interdisciplinary collaboration, improves dissemination of knowledge and supports policy dialogues. A consortium of 17 partners, representing research institutes, geological surveys and industry, with excellence in all above domains will deliver this ambitious project.