Final Report Summary - COBALT (COntributing to Building of Awareness, Learning and Transfer of knowledge on sustainable use of raw materials)
Executive Summary:
The COBALT project followed the overarching objective to create favourable framework conditions for the implementation of the European Innovation Partnership on Raw Materials by (i) mobilising public awareness on raw material issues, (ii) facilitating European and regional dialogues between civil society and industry in order to ensure mutual understanding and partnership building, and (iii) identifying and mitigating shortages of skills.
In this context, the COBALT Opening Conference aimed to initiate (and foster existing) debates, networking and exchange on a more sustainable raw materials management in the EU among a multitude of actors, stemming from industry and business (including SME and larger businesses), civil society, geological surveys, policy making (EU, national and regional level), and academia. One of the main outcomes of the conference was to foster and continue the ‘COBALT spirit’ of an open and respectful dialogue, where various stakeholders get together, meet at eye-level and be willing and prepared to listen and explore even contentious issues. Essentially, the conference prepared the way forward to develop a COBALT Declaration document, representing a vision of best practice and ‘golden rules’ for necessary multi-stakeholder dialogue and processes, and, at the same time, help to identify a list of potentially relevant and contentious issues.
Based on the COBALT Opening Conference findings and the stakeholder exchanges initiated at this conference, several further COBALT dialogue events, mainly between civil society organisations and industry, were held in the framework of WP2, "Civil society-industry Dialogues". Moreover, some of the issues relating to skill needs for a more sustainable raw material management were further taken in the context of WP3 "Tackling skill shortages". Hence, as planned and designed in the project logic, the Opening Conference, as part of WP1, was instrumental in framing the way ahead and enabling more targeted work in the other COBALT project Work Packages.
Building upon activities in WP 1, the project team developed a strategy for the COBALT civil society-industry Dialogues at the EU and regional (Iberian Peninsula, Northern Europe and Eastern Europe) level: an innovative and participatory facilitation model enabled reflection on best practice, discussion of contentious issues and respective knowledge gaps as well as identification of stakeholder competences and perspectives. These Dialogues provided an overview of key thematic outcomes and respective policy recommendations as well as lessons learnt for forming partnerships and aligning priorities, in particular among industry and civil society stakeholders.
During the course of both COBALT conferences and dialogues, the project team, together with a number of high level industry, civil society and research representatives, developed the “The 10 COBALT recommendations for an effective multi dialogue” (replacing the title ‘COBALT Declaration’). This document highlighted the commitment of high level stakeholders to further advance COBALT’s agenda on co-management and, at the same time, provided key principles for effective dialogue to enable progress on key thematic areas in sustainable raw materials management.
The skills angle of the COBALT project aimed at supporting universities, industry, civil society organisations as well as public agencies to tackle the problem of skill shortages related to the increasing importance of eco-efficiency and sustainability issues within primary raw materials extraction and processing as well as recycling of secondary raw materials. Besides identifying available tutoring offers and existing skill shortages in the higher education sector, the COBALT team developed and evaluated different mitigation concepts, such as a university curriculum, a layman's and professional course, in order to build up the necessary skills levels.
Project Context and Objectives:
Fostering dialogue, building of awareness, and mutual learning in support of sustainable raw materials management in Europe were the focal points of the COBALT project that ran from 1 May 2013 to 30 April 2015. Embedded in the context of the European Innovation Partnership on Raw Materials (EIP), COBALT has provided a valuable platform for involving stakeholders across the entire value chain of raw material supply and use: business and industry (e.g. industry associations and SMEs), civil society organisations (CSOs, e.g. consumer associations and environmental NGOs), EU and national level policy makers, national geological surveys, and public and private research organisations.
COBALT identified a number of challenges addressed in context of the EIP: A secure supply as well as sustainable management of raw materials is not only a matter of technologies and policy instruments, but also depends on the involvement of societal stakeholders. Thus, the challenges addressed by COBALT are linked to the dispositions of various societal stakeholders and, therefore, implementing networking, partnership and co-management activities was a strong component. In this context, COBALT aimed to initiate (and foster existing) debate, networking and exchange on more sustainable raw materials management in the EU among a multitude of stakeholders through a series of workshops, conferences, training courses, and targeted publications.
Especially, civil society – a key stakeholder for COBALT – (i) plays the role of an active partner for sustainable raw materials management, (ii) supports policy and business change through societal mobilisation and public acceptance, and (iii) acts as a carrier of local and context-specific knowledge for policy design and implementation. To fulfil these roles, however, it needs to be aware of the most important raw materials issues and capacities for action. Thus, COBALT focused on civil society-industry interfaces through a series of diverse activities.
To create dialogue, building of awareness and mutual learning among stakeholders in support of the sustainable raw materials management and the EIP, COBALT pursued the following overarching objectives and respective activities:
(1) COBALT events (EU and Regional Dialogue workshops and an Opening and Closing Conference) were characterised by innovative and participatory facilitation models reflecting on best practice, discussing contentious issues and respective knowledge gaps, identifying stakeholder competences and perspectives for co-management approaches. These facilitations concepts helped to stimulate partnerships between SMEs, civil society organisations, geological surveys, and academia, and supported the dissemination of research results on more sustainable raw materials management.
(2) With a focus on civil society and industry stakeholders, major COBALT activities (targeted publications, such as policy briefs or the COBALT Lessons Learned and Recommendations, and events), furthermore, facilitated a learning process between industry (particularly SMEs and industry associations) and civil society to strengthen sustainable raw materials co-management approaches from both the demand and supply side.
(3) The COBALT conferences, in particular, provided a multi-stakeholder platform to stimulate public debate and raise societal awareness of adverse social and environmental impacts of raw material supply and use, and of opportunities related sustainable raw materials management. In that sense, it fostered societal acceptance of their extraction, substitution, replacement and recycling.
(4) COBALT took stock of skill shortages of and developed mitigation measures for its major stakeholder groups. In a next step, by designing, testing, validating and disseminating sets of training blueprints and course syllabi, COBALT helped to overcome shortages of skills within primary raw materials extraction and processing as well as recycling of secondary raw materials.
Project Results:
Being a coordination and support action (CSA), COBALT was not meant to produce original scientific outcomes. However, the project contributed via a series of publications to reflect on societal and stakeholder challenges in the context of sustainable raw materials management: public awareness on raw material challenges, mutual understanding of stakeholder perspectives, sharing of best practices, stakeholder networking, partnership-building and co-management approaches, and skill shortages mitigation.
A total of , accompanying the COBALT events, highlighted thematic discussions, particular contentious issues and knowledge gaps among stakeholders, opportunities for partnerships and co-management approaches, in particular, between civil society organisations and industry.
COBALT investigated various stakeholder perspectives along different value chain elements and distilled recommendations for an effective multi-stakeholder dialogue. More specifically, these recommendations (The 10 COBALT recommendations) and supporting documents (Synthesis Report on Dialogue Insights, Network Report, Regional Civil Society-Industry Dialogue Report) highlight lessons learnt on (1) formats, processes and needs for effective multi-stakeholder dialogue, and (2) to identify relevant issues in this complex thematic area that need further attention.
In order to comprehensively address raw materials skills issues, the COBALT project team compiled a series of reports, encompassing (1) a systematic survey of educational offer versus educational demands along the raw materials value chain, within the various regions of Europe and across different stakeholder groups (Preliminary report on available courses and existing skill shortages), (2) respective educational schemes for skills shortage mitigation on various levels (Draft course syllabi for university education), and (3) a revision and further elaboration of the different courses and programmes, their pilot testing, and an evaluation of the developed concepts (Final report on skills shortages and means of addressing them).
Potential Impact:
The COBALT project established and implemented a successful integrated approach to involve stakeholders throughout its running time and, thus, its ramification and multiplication efforts lead to an extended outreach of the EIP and overall the European raw materials management debate.
The main target groups for involvement into project events and for dissemination activities were civil society organisations, business and industry, policy makers and research. Therefore, bringing those stakeholders together and exchange on best practices, relevant challenges, common and diverging perceptions and needs helped in creating a common ground for continuous networks, partnerships and joint action through the following activities:
(1) The European-wide COBALT Opening and Closing Conferences (WP1) helped to set the scene, initiate and maintain debate, exchange and network building between COBALT target groups and, consequently, fostered a public debate and raised societal awareness on raw material challenges and contentious issues.
(2) In order to enable more intense and detailed exchange between the different perceptions and needs of civil society and of businesses and industry, WP2 organised 6 civil society-industry COBALT Dialogues in three different regions and at EU level to integrate regional, national and local perspectives and exchange.
(3) WP3 in turn explicitly identified and discussed skill shortages relevant to sustainable raw materials management in Europe and develops ways forward to overcome these shortages and, therefore, supported COBALT target groups to tackle the problem of skill shortages.
This multi-stakeholder approach fostered effective and open stakeholder dialogues and co-management processes in the wider context of the EIP objectives. The generated results have been disseminated (WP4) among a network of 1,400 stakeholder contacts through the following activities:
(a) interactive conferences and workshops provided a vehicle for personal exchange and dialogue in order to raise public awareness on opportunities and challenges related to raw materials management.
(b) The COBALT internet platform and social media (i.e. Twitter, LinkedIn) guaranteed a constant base for exchanging ideas, adding on and stimulating the live meetings, disseminating project relevant knowledge as well as the network outputs and the project’s progress and results.
(c) 5 electronic newsletters were periodically circulated, providing updates on the project progress and including news from the EIP development and other relevant stakeholders or projects
(d) 8 policy briefs and 2 press releases summarised events findings and provided policy recommendations
(e) A series of project deliverables (COBALT declaration, Synthesis Report on Dialogue Insights, Network Report, Regional Civil Society-Industry Dialogue Report) generated lessons learnt on thematic approaches, and formats, processes and needs for effective multi-stakeholder dialogue.
(f) Additionally, presentations drawing from results of the COBALT project, or the Coordinator’s participation to promote the project’s events, have been given at the following scientific conferences or other events related to the topics dealt with by COBALT:
* DG GROW European Innovation Partnership on Raw Materials Annual Conference 2013, 5 Dec, 2013, Brussels, Belgium
* 1st Workshop of the RECREATE FP7 project, “Overcoming Fragmentation in Research & Innovation”, 23 April 2014, Brussels
* 2nd Symposium on Urban Mining, 19-21 May, 2014, Bergamo, Italy
* 1st European Rare Earth Conference, 4-7 September, 2014, Milos, Greece
* DG R&I workshop “Let's support and coordinate systemic eco-innovation”, 29 October, 2014, Brussels, Belgium
* 17th European Forum on Eco-innovation, 1-2 Dec, 2014, Lyon, France
* 1st Austrian Conference on International Resource Politics, 4-6 December, 2014, Vienna, Austria
* DG GROW High Level Conference of the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on Raw Materials, 13-14 January, 2015, Brussels, Belgium
List of Websites:
Website: www.cobalt-fp7.eu/
Contact:
PD Dr. André Martinuzzi
Vienna University of Economics and Business, Institute for Managing Sustainability
Welthandelsplatz 1
A-1020 Vienna
T: +43-1-31336-4698
E: andre.martinuzzi@wu.ac.at
The COBALT project followed the overarching objective to create favourable framework conditions for the implementation of the European Innovation Partnership on Raw Materials by (i) mobilising public awareness on raw material issues, (ii) facilitating European and regional dialogues between civil society and industry in order to ensure mutual understanding and partnership building, and (iii) identifying and mitigating shortages of skills.
In this context, the COBALT Opening Conference aimed to initiate (and foster existing) debates, networking and exchange on a more sustainable raw materials management in the EU among a multitude of actors, stemming from industry and business (including SME and larger businesses), civil society, geological surveys, policy making (EU, national and regional level), and academia. One of the main outcomes of the conference was to foster and continue the ‘COBALT spirit’ of an open and respectful dialogue, where various stakeholders get together, meet at eye-level and be willing and prepared to listen and explore even contentious issues. Essentially, the conference prepared the way forward to develop a COBALT Declaration document, representing a vision of best practice and ‘golden rules’ for necessary multi-stakeholder dialogue and processes, and, at the same time, help to identify a list of potentially relevant and contentious issues.
Based on the COBALT Opening Conference findings and the stakeholder exchanges initiated at this conference, several further COBALT dialogue events, mainly between civil society organisations and industry, were held in the framework of WP2, "Civil society-industry Dialogues". Moreover, some of the issues relating to skill needs for a more sustainable raw material management were further taken in the context of WP3 "Tackling skill shortages". Hence, as planned and designed in the project logic, the Opening Conference, as part of WP1, was instrumental in framing the way ahead and enabling more targeted work in the other COBALT project Work Packages.
Building upon activities in WP 1, the project team developed a strategy for the COBALT civil society-industry Dialogues at the EU and regional (Iberian Peninsula, Northern Europe and Eastern Europe) level: an innovative and participatory facilitation model enabled reflection on best practice, discussion of contentious issues and respective knowledge gaps as well as identification of stakeholder competences and perspectives. These Dialogues provided an overview of key thematic outcomes and respective policy recommendations as well as lessons learnt for forming partnerships and aligning priorities, in particular among industry and civil society stakeholders.
During the course of both COBALT conferences and dialogues, the project team, together with a number of high level industry, civil society and research representatives, developed the “The 10 COBALT recommendations for an effective multi dialogue” (replacing the title ‘COBALT Declaration’). This document highlighted the commitment of high level stakeholders to further advance COBALT’s agenda on co-management and, at the same time, provided key principles for effective dialogue to enable progress on key thematic areas in sustainable raw materials management.
The skills angle of the COBALT project aimed at supporting universities, industry, civil society organisations as well as public agencies to tackle the problem of skill shortages related to the increasing importance of eco-efficiency and sustainability issues within primary raw materials extraction and processing as well as recycling of secondary raw materials. Besides identifying available tutoring offers and existing skill shortages in the higher education sector, the COBALT team developed and evaluated different mitigation concepts, such as a university curriculum, a layman's and professional course, in order to build up the necessary skills levels.
Project Context and Objectives:
Fostering dialogue, building of awareness, and mutual learning in support of sustainable raw materials management in Europe were the focal points of the COBALT project that ran from 1 May 2013 to 30 April 2015. Embedded in the context of the European Innovation Partnership on Raw Materials (EIP), COBALT has provided a valuable platform for involving stakeholders across the entire value chain of raw material supply and use: business and industry (e.g. industry associations and SMEs), civil society organisations (CSOs, e.g. consumer associations and environmental NGOs), EU and national level policy makers, national geological surveys, and public and private research organisations.
COBALT identified a number of challenges addressed in context of the EIP: A secure supply as well as sustainable management of raw materials is not only a matter of technologies and policy instruments, but also depends on the involvement of societal stakeholders. Thus, the challenges addressed by COBALT are linked to the dispositions of various societal stakeholders and, therefore, implementing networking, partnership and co-management activities was a strong component. In this context, COBALT aimed to initiate (and foster existing) debate, networking and exchange on more sustainable raw materials management in the EU among a multitude of stakeholders through a series of workshops, conferences, training courses, and targeted publications.
Especially, civil society – a key stakeholder for COBALT – (i) plays the role of an active partner for sustainable raw materials management, (ii) supports policy and business change through societal mobilisation and public acceptance, and (iii) acts as a carrier of local and context-specific knowledge for policy design and implementation. To fulfil these roles, however, it needs to be aware of the most important raw materials issues and capacities for action. Thus, COBALT focused on civil society-industry interfaces through a series of diverse activities.
To create dialogue, building of awareness and mutual learning among stakeholders in support of the sustainable raw materials management and the EIP, COBALT pursued the following overarching objectives and respective activities:
(1) COBALT events (EU and Regional Dialogue workshops and an Opening and Closing Conference) were characterised by innovative and participatory facilitation models reflecting on best practice, discussing contentious issues and respective knowledge gaps, identifying stakeholder competences and perspectives for co-management approaches. These facilitations concepts helped to stimulate partnerships between SMEs, civil society organisations, geological surveys, and academia, and supported the dissemination of research results on more sustainable raw materials management.
(2) With a focus on civil society and industry stakeholders, major COBALT activities (targeted publications, such as policy briefs or the COBALT Lessons Learned and Recommendations, and events), furthermore, facilitated a learning process between industry (particularly SMEs and industry associations) and civil society to strengthen sustainable raw materials co-management approaches from both the demand and supply side.
(3) The COBALT conferences, in particular, provided a multi-stakeholder platform to stimulate public debate and raise societal awareness of adverse social and environmental impacts of raw material supply and use, and of opportunities related sustainable raw materials management. In that sense, it fostered societal acceptance of their extraction, substitution, replacement and recycling.
(4) COBALT took stock of skill shortages of and developed mitigation measures for its major stakeholder groups. In a next step, by designing, testing, validating and disseminating sets of training blueprints and course syllabi, COBALT helped to overcome shortages of skills within primary raw materials extraction and processing as well as recycling of secondary raw materials.
Project Results:
Being a coordination and support action (CSA), COBALT was not meant to produce original scientific outcomes. However, the project contributed via a series of publications to reflect on societal and stakeholder challenges in the context of sustainable raw materials management: public awareness on raw material challenges, mutual understanding of stakeholder perspectives, sharing of best practices, stakeholder networking, partnership-building and co-management approaches, and skill shortages mitigation.
A total of , accompanying the COBALT events, highlighted thematic discussions, particular contentious issues and knowledge gaps among stakeholders, opportunities for partnerships and co-management approaches, in particular, between civil society organisations and industry.
COBALT investigated various stakeholder perspectives along different value chain elements and distilled recommendations for an effective multi-stakeholder dialogue. More specifically, these recommendations (The 10 COBALT recommendations) and supporting documents (Synthesis Report on Dialogue Insights, Network Report, Regional Civil Society-Industry Dialogue Report) highlight lessons learnt on (1) formats, processes and needs for effective multi-stakeholder dialogue, and (2) to identify relevant issues in this complex thematic area that need further attention.
In order to comprehensively address raw materials skills issues, the COBALT project team compiled a series of reports, encompassing (1) a systematic survey of educational offer versus educational demands along the raw materials value chain, within the various regions of Europe and across different stakeholder groups (Preliminary report on available courses and existing skill shortages), (2) respective educational schemes for skills shortage mitigation on various levels (Draft course syllabi for university education), and (3) a revision and further elaboration of the different courses and programmes, their pilot testing, and an evaluation of the developed concepts (Final report on skills shortages and means of addressing them).
Potential Impact:
The COBALT project established and implemented a successful integrated approach to involve stakeholders throughout its running time and, thus, its ramification and multiplication efforts lead to an extended outreach of the EIP and overall the European raw materials management debate.
The main target groups for involvement into project events and for dissemination activities were civil society organisations, business and industry, policy makers and research. Therefore, bringing those stakeholders together and exchange on best practices, relevant challenges, common and diverging perceptions and needs helped in creating a common ground for continuous networks, partnerships and joint action through the following activities:
(1) The European-wide COBALT Opening and Closing Conferences (WP1) helped to set the scene, initiate and maintain debate, exchange and network building between COBALT target groups and, consequently, fostered a public debate and raised societal awareness on raw material challenges and contentious issues.
(2) In order to enable more intense and detailed exchange between the different perceptions and needs of civil society and of businesses and industry, WP2 organised 6 civil society-industry COBALT Dialogues in three different regions and at EU level to integrate regional, national and local perspectives and exchange.
(3) WP3 in turn explicitly identified and discussed skill shortages relevant to sustainable raw materials management in Europe and develops ways forward to overcome these shortages and, therefore, supported COBALT target groups to tackle the problem of skill shortages.
This multi-stakeholder approach fostered effective and open stakeholder dialogues and co-management processes in the wider context of the EIP objectives. The generated results have been disseminated (WP4) among a network of 1,400 stakeholder contacts through the following activities:
(a) interactive conferences and workshops provided a vehicle for personal exchange and dialogue in order to raise public awareness on opportunities and challenges related to raw materials management.
(b) The COBALT internet platform and social media (i.e. Twitter, LinkedIn) guaranteed a constant base for exchanging ideas, adding on and stimulating the live meetings, disseminating project relevant knowledge as well as the network outputs and the project’s progress and results.
(c) 5 electronic newsletters were periodically circulated, providing updates on the project progress and including news from the EIP development and other relevant stakeholders or projects
(d) 8 policy briefs and 2 press releases summarised events findings and provided policy recommendations
(e) A series of project deliverables (COBALT declaration, Synthesis Report on Dialogue Insights, Network Report, Regional Civil Society-Industry Dialogue Report) generated lessons learnt on thematic approaches, and formats, processes and needs for effective multi-stakeholder dialogue.
(f) Additionally, presentations drawing from results of the COBALT project, or the Coordinator’s participation to promote the project’s events, have been given at the following scientific conferences or other events related to the topics dealt with by COBALT:
* DG GROW European Innovation Partnership on Raw Materials Annual Conference 2013, 5 Dec, 2013, Brussels, Belgium
* 1st Workshop of the RECREATE FP7 project, “Overcoming Fragmentation in Research & Innovation”, 23 April 2014, Brussels
* 2nd Symposium on Urban Mining, 19-21 May, 2014, Bergamo, Italy
* 1st European Rare Earth Conference, 4-7 September, 2014, Milos, Greece
* DG R&I workshop “Let's support and coordinate systemic eco-innovation”, 29 October, 2014, Brussels, Belgium
* 17th European Forum on Eco-innovation, 1-2 Dec, 2014, Lyon, France
* 1st Austrian Conference on International Resource Politics, 4-6 December, 2014, Vienna, Austria
* DG GROW High Level Conference of the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on Raw Materials, 13-14 January, 2015, Brussels, Belgium
List of Websites:
Website: www.cobalt-fp7.eu/
Contact:
PD Dr. André Martinuzzi
Vienna University of Economics and Business, Institute for Managing Sustainability
Welthandelsplatz 1
A-1020 Vienna
T: +43-1-31336-4698
E: andre.martinuzzi@wu.ac.at