Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISIMinerals Intelligence Capacity Analysis (MICA)
Primary and secondary raw materials are fundamental to Europe’s economy and growth. To-date, there exists no raw materials knowledge infrastructure at EU level. The Minerals Intelligence Capacity Analysis (MICA) project aims to improve the provision and delivery of raw material information to stakeholders in Europe through a powerful, user-friendly online platform. To this end, Fraunhofer ISI leads a comprehensive analysis of stakeholder needs regarding raw materials intelligence (Work Package 2) and will contribute to the inventory of tools and methods for addressing these needs.
The project will provide an online platform with the aim of helping decision makers to better navigate through the raw materials domain, covering primary metallic, industrial and construction minerals and their secondary stocks in the anthroposphere. Access to raw material information (data, methods and foresight tools) is facilitated and responding to stakeholders’ information needs (e.g. how much primary copper will be needed in a circular economy?) is supported. Thus, MICA will be part of the transitional phase in building a European Union Raw Materials Knowledge Base (EURMBK).
The MICA project brings together a multidisciplinary team of experts from natural and technical sciences, social sciences including political sciences, and information science and technology to ensure that raw material intelligence is collected, collated, stored and made accessible in the most useful way corresponding to stakeholder needs. Furthermore, the MICA project integrates a group of 15 European geological surveys that contribute to the work program as third parties.