NERC Centre for Doctoral Training – Mineral Resources for Energy Transition

Funding to deliver new NERC centres for doctoral training (CDTs) in mineral resources for the energy transition.

Through this Centre for Doctoral Training – Mineral Resources for Energy Transition, the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) is offering funding to deliver a new NERC centre for doctoral training (CDT) in mineral resources for the energy transition. The aim is to minimise the environmental impacts of responsibly securing the mineral resources that underpin all manufacturing and infrastructure development in the UK. They are essential to achieve the global energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

Each CDT will fund 24 notional studentships across three annual intakes. CDTs will train a community of interdisciplinary challenge-led researchers who will identify and deliver ‘real world’ integrated solutions across entire mineral value chains to address net zero challenges and deliver positive outcomes for business and the environment.

Many of the minerals required for clean energy technologies (eg lithium, cobalt and graphite in electric car batteries and rare earth elements in wind turbines) are designated critical. Global demand and international competition for technology-critical mineral resources is expected to quadruple by 2040. Current demand is already outstripping the rate of mineral production. There is a critical resource challenge in securing the supply and reducing the reliance on the minerals needed to achieve net zero and protect the future growth and resilience of the UK economy.

A CDT investment will enable the UK skills base to realise the required step-changes and provide the interdisciplinary solutions needed. This will support domestic mineral industries and UK companies operating around the world to responsibly source the mineral resources required for the global energy transition. There is a need to:

• Find, identify and characterise the mineral resources needed for the energy transition, including in sensitive and extreme environments, and further understanding of the processes which form concentrated mineral deposits.
• Extract required mineral resources using responsible methods with minimal environmental and social harm, including through the reduction of energy and water consumption across mineral value chains and the remediation of post-mine landscapes.
• Embed circular economy approaches within the minerals sector, including developing efficient processing and refining techniques, reducing or reusing waste, and designing products for end-of-life recovery.
• Increase transparency within global value chains to understand mineral flows and the impacts, vulnerabilities, and opportunities in the minerals sector in relation to trade, policy, security and environmental leadership, including the development of new regulations, standards and frameworks to achieve truly sustainable approaches to securing, recovering, recycling and reuse of mineral resources.

The CDT will foster a community of interdisciplinary challenge-led researchers who will identify and deliver ‘real world’ integrated solutions, based on the strongest evidence, that put an environmental approach at their core. The CDT model is designed to support a translational approach by encouraging academic and non-academic partners to unite around common challenges. It is strongly recommended that the CDT should integrate end-user involvement from across the mineral value chain in developing and delivering the training required.

Training provided by the CDT must be relevant to the ambitions to address environmental and net zero challenges. The training must also deliver positive outcomes for business and the environment that minimise the environmental impacts of consumption articulated within the NERC delivery plan and UKRI building a green future strategic theme. The CDT will focus training on developing, and strengthening, interdisciplinary approaches to deliver new understanding of how mining can be revolutionised.