International Master of Science in Sustainable and Innovative Natural Resource Management

The rapidly increasing demand for specialty metals and minerals – caused by an increasing electrification of the industry, new information and communication technologies, and green energy and sustainable mobility solutions (e.g. car batteries, solar panels and windfarms) – calls for a more economic, socially and environmentally sustainable supply of raw materials.

The limited availability of metals and mineral raw materials, in combination with global phenomena, such as geopolitical base metal and high-tech metal supply risks, fossil fuel depletion and climate change, urges us to develop more sustainable management strategies for these resources. These challenges can be translated into economic opportunities and business models that require advanced training.

There is currently a wide variety of specialists that act within the boundaries of their own discipline. These specialists often lack the broader overview on the available alternative techniques to make the entire value chain more sustainable, and to tackle specific supply risk challenges by looking at the issues from a global value chain perspective within a multidisciplinary context. There is thus a clear need for professionals with a global mindset and a holistic overview of the raw materials value chain, who can apply sustainability assessment tools and develop new management strategies and technologies for resource exploration, mining, chemical processing and recycling. SINReM delivers this type of T-shaped professionals: our graduates have a basic expertise in, and understanding of every aspect in the entire raw materials value chain, in combination with a specialised expertise in one particular field.

Students take a three-week introductory course to the programme at TU Freiberg in September. The course introduces them to the process chain of mineral resources. The subsequent first term at Ghent University introduces the students to the economic aspects of the circular economy, multicriteria decision-making and sustainability assessment tools. In addition, the students become familiar with sustainable materials and technologies used to extract and recover raw materials from industrial byproducts and waste streams.

During the second term at Uppsala University, the students are trained in georesource exploration and entrepreneurship, and are stimulated to excel in creativity with an entrepreneurial mindset and innovative problem-based technology development skills.

At the end of the first academic year, the students take the modular Resources Chemistry course unit at TU Freiberg. This course unit covers fundamentals in chemistry of ore deposits, kinetic aspects of precipitation and extraction, and chemical foundations of hydro- and pyrometallurgical processes.

In the first year, all students move as a cohort between the three partner, resulting in significant networking and social cohesion advantages.

In the second year, the students choose one of the three partner universities to take one of the five elective majors consisting of mandatory and optional course units in a particular field of sustainable and innovative natural resource management:

• Resource Recovery and Sustainable Materials (Ghent University)
• Circular Societies (Ghent University)
• Sustainable Processes (TU Freiberg)
• Georesource Exploration (Uppsala University)
• Sustainable Entrepreneurship (Uppsala University)

Moreover, the students conduct a work placement outside academia and work on their 30-credit Master’s dissertation.

SINReM graduates are qualified for a professional career in the private, research (applied research at universities, research institutes or companies) or public sector. They are particularly attractive for employers as they can support companies in making processes, products and services more sustainable. In addition, they can aid local, regional and (inter)national administrations to define and implement sustainable development policies. Furthermore, our graduates have benefited from the international, multicultural environment and from the close links between education, research and innovation, the three components of the knowledge triangle, in the study programme. This is reflected in the significant study time dedicated to innovation management and entrepreneurship skills and to project work aimed at stimulating creative and multidisciplinary thinking with active involvement of the non-academic partners in student supervision.