Breakfast Session on Critical Raw Materials for Members of Parliament

The ‘Circular Critical Raw Materials’ partnership* organised a breakfast session for knowledge exchange on critical materials for members of the Dutch Parliament and other invited guests on October 16th at TU Delft | Campus The Hague. In the run-up to the Committee Debate on Economic Security and Strategic Autonomy on November 7th, the Circular Critical Raw Materials partnership provided insights into the innovation and scaling up of technology for critical materials, the impact on Dutch society and the opportunities for the Netherlands.

What will the products of the future be made of, and how can we ensure that we can continue to produce them in the future without dependence on foreign and/or non-European powers? This is a challenge that is at least as comprehensive and complex as the energy transition. New raw materials and resources are needed, as well as different methods for extracting them, designing and manufacturing products, and recovering the materials through efficient recycling. Led by Jacqueline Vaessen (Topsector Chemie), these topics were discussed further with Benjamin Sprecher (TU Delft), John-Alan Pascoe (TU Delft) and Luc Kikkert (TNO).

*The ‘Circular Critical Raw Materials’ partnership consists of: Topsector Chemie, VNCI, M2i, TNO, Invest-NL, University of Amsterdam, Shell, Delft University of Technology, Leiden University, Port of Rotterdam, University of Twente, Nyrstar, Nobian, Butterbridge, and the other involved companies and knowledge institutions who submitted the Critical Raw Materials (CRM) proposal for the National Growth Fund 4.