R’09 and WRF, September 13, 2009 - Congress-Center, Davos/Switzerland

Introduction

A growing number of technologies and products depend on scarce elements. A few examples are lithium in lithium-ion batteries, tantalum in small electronic devices, rare earth elements (REE) in permanent magnets for e.g. wind turbines, and tellurium in thin film solar cells. Furthermore food production essentially depends on the geochemically scarce element phosphorous.

The increasing demand for scarce elements, which is expected to further increase in the near future due to emerging technologies e.g. in the domain of energy supply and transportation as well as population growth, have risen concern regarding the security of supply with these elements.

In order to allow, amongst other, for a smooth transition towards carbon free technologies, it is of great importance to understand the factors affecting scarce element supply, to assess the relevance of these factors and to consider the implications for sustainable governance of scarce metals supply.

Goals

The workshop will offer the opportunity for PhDs working in the field of scarce elements to meet and discuss their research projects. It shall enhance the communication among PhD students working on these issues and provide inputs for related projects they and their institutions are working on.

In particular, the workshop intends to focus on the following guiding questions:

• What are the critical issues with regard to scarce elements supply and demand?
• Which topics are addressed within the PhD theses?
• How do the PhD projects contribute to a better understanding of the factors affecting scarce elements supply and their relevance? Are these factors and their implications on sustainable governance perceived in a similar or in a different way?
• Which are the commonalities, which are the differences? What are the research needs from the perspective of the PhD projects?
• Are there possibilities for synergies/ collaborations?

Program

The workshop will consist of the following two parts:

Part one – Presentation of the PhD projects (09.00 – 12.00 h)
The PhD students will present the focus of their research theses, including the institutional setting, the methods used and, if available, intermediate results.

Part two – Discussion (13.00 – 16.00 h)
The discussion will address the guiding questions described above under ‘Goals’.
The output of the discussion shall be, in particular:
 

• Synthesis of the discussions (including first answers to the guiding questions, a summary of the PhD activities and a short statement regarding the research needs both from a general perspective and from specific PhD project perspective), which will be presented on the occasion of the workshop held on September 15 at R’09.
• A proposal on how to implement a PhD-students / institutions network (if at all);
• Ideas for common publications.

The discussion will be held in plenum and/or small groups.

From 16:00 to 18:00 h you will have the opportunity to participate in the official welcome reception of R’09. After the welcome reception it is planned to have a workshop participant dinner.
 

Application

If you are a PhD student working in the field of scarce elements supply and demand and are interested in participating, please send a short abstract (approximately 2000 characters) until 31 of July to Anna Stamp (anna.stamp@empa.ch).

The abstract should include:

• Goal, scope and duration of your thesis
• Institutional research context
• Status of the work (including reference to existing own publications)
• Expected results
• Fellowships

We offer refunding for travel expenses, conference fee R’09/WRF (14 to 16 of September) and accommodation in Davos (3 nights). In case that we receive too many applications we will select the best abstracts submitted for refunding. Participants will be informed until 14 of August.

Workshop organization

The workshop is organized by Anna Stamp (PhD student at ETH Zurich and the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research (Empa), Daniel J. Lang (ETH Zürich) and Patrick Wäger (Empa).

For further information please contact Anna Stamp (anna.stamp@empa.ch).