​Colleagues from Geological Survey Ireland, RML Ltd, the Geoscience Policy Division of DECC and the Geological Survey of Denmark & Greenland recently organised a Union Sympoium session at the European Geoscience Union 2024 General Assembly in Vienna.  

The conference is the largest geoscience meeting in Europe with  20,979 registered attendees this year, of which 18,388 made their way to Vienna from 116 countries. There were over 18,896 presentations given in 1,044 sessions across the week of the conference. 

The Symposium comprised a panel discussion on the topic The EU Critical Raw Materials Act – how geoscientists can directly inform European policy and regulation. Our panel of experts included Dr Karen Hanghoj (Director of the British Geological Survey and minerals expert), Dr Christophe Poinsset (Deputy CEO of the Geological Survey of France, BRGM and President of EuroGeoSurveys), Priv. Doz. Dr Simona Regenspurg (GFZ Postdam and reserach in minerals from geothermal brines) and Mr Gabriel Nievoll (DG Grow, European Commission). 

The session included short presentations from each spekers and then a discussion and questions and answers from the audience. The discussion ranged from the skills and training needed to implement the new Act, to what the Act means for both researchers and national agencies such as Geological Surveys. There was also a strong agreement that the  roll-out of the Act across Europea will require multidisciplinary teams including geoscientists, social scientists, economists, AI/modelling experts and more. 

A recording of the presentation will be available open access on the EGU website from June 1st (until then it will be available to EGU members via the same link). 

For more information on the Critical Raw Materials Act please see the EC website.