Project code: 22016
Project owner: UNIPD - Scuola di Ingegneria
Sponsor authority: European Commission
Financing line: Horizon Europe - EIT RawMaterials
Website: mille.ingegneria.unipd.it
Project state: open

Project

The European Green Deal has put a tremendous spotlight on the raw materials sector to deliver innovation, education and new technologies at an unprecedented pace and scale. It will cause an industrial shift that puts the environment, societal responsibility for our human capital and efficient governance at the centre of every business model practice. This transformation will lead to scales of innovation not seen before and will turn the industry into a powerhouse of innovation and change.

Europe must transition on all levels to adopt clean energy technologies and drive digitalisation, automation and electrification. All elements of the raw materials sector’s supply chains, from mineral extraction to recycling, digitalisation and data intelligence, as well as product and process, must be reconsidered and reconfigured, leaving behind our traditional methodologies, systems and approaches.

As a result, the industry will become more purpose-driven, where circular economy, environment, recycling and sustainable design will be popular motivators that will improve the lives of Europeans.

These are the foundations of EIT RawMaterials, the world’s largest raw materials consortium with over 300 partners and provides a collaborative environment for disruptive and breakthrough innovations by connecting business with academia, research, and investment.

In this context, MILLE project, grasped the importance of the innovative ways in which Lifelong Learning based on a Human-Centric approach could be crucial in the achieving the EU’s social goals for 2030, which call for at least 60 per cent of adults to be involved in training activities and at least 78 per cent of the adult population to be employed.

The MILLE partnership, composed by University of Padua, Fraunhofer, FVEM - Federacion Vizcaina de Impresas del Metal and Confindustria Veneto SIAV, strongly believes in a system in which everyone has access in learning and is therefore inclusive and where everyone continuously improves on existing skills and acquires new ones based on their individual needs. Lifelong learning, based on innovative training and teaching tools, is becoming a strategic tool for implementing innovation in SMEs and the MILLE Project will strongly contribute to this scenario, in the area of raw materials, sustainability, design for circularity, traceability methodologies, developing multidisciplinary micro-credit programmes, associated with digital certifications.