Periodic Reporting for period 2 - GRIP-ARM (Green Industrial Policy in the Age of Rare Metals: A Transregional Comparison of Growth Strategies in Rare Earth Mining)
Período documentado: 2022-08-01 hasta 2024-01-31
Our new global political economy is increasingly defined by ‘critical raw materials’ (CRMs). Firstly, low and middle-income countries joining the race for industrialization are increasing demands for high-tech goods ranging from computers, mobile phones, and flat screens, as well as for low-carbon consumer products, such as energy efficient cars, solar panels, wind turbines, and even lights – all of which constitute further pressures to accelerate the natural resource exploitation. Secondly, growing demands for critical minerals are currently suffering from a supply constraint given that China – the dominant market player in the CRM sector – has begun to impose export restrictions and reorient its mining policy to support domestic industrialization. The impending resource crunch creates incentives for mineral states to gain strategic and economic advantage. Our project analyses the full production chain – mining, processing, manufacturing, use, and recycling – and pays attention to domestic motives, strategies, and power relations between resource producing and importing countries.
GRIP-ARM draws from a trans-regional comparison to analyze both (1) resource-producing countries that deploy various industrial strategies to (re)shape world supply and production; and (2) resource-importing countries and manufacturing firms that seek to reduce supply vulnerability while also reducing socio-environmental costs of rare earth extraction. In particular, the research examines how industrial policy designs in both mineral producers and consumers have evolved as new geopolitical uncertainties emerge and as supply chains of critical minerals linked to advanced manufacturing and clean energy technologies become disrupted.
Thus, GRIP-ARM breaks new ground in the political economy and development studies scholarship in three ways:
(a) We examine the causal factors as regards why new industrial policies linked to critical minerals have emerged since 2015;
(b) We assess the key factors explaining the success and failure of specific mineral-based industrial policies being adopted by Brazil, China and Kazakhstan; and
(c) We examine how advanced industrialized countries seeking access to critical minerals, notably the European Union, South Korea and Japan, are re-organizing their business strategies and industrial policies in response to growing geopolitical uncertainties and supply chain disruptions.
GRIP-ARM draws from a trans-regional comparison to analyze both (1) resource-producing countries that deploy various industrial strategies to (re)shape world supply and production; and (2) resource-importing countries and manufacturing firms that seek to reduce supply vulnerability while also reducing socio-environmental costs of rare earth extraction. In particular, the research examines how industrial policy designs in both mineral producers and consumers have evolved as new geopolitical uncertainties emerge and as supply chains of critical minerals linked to advanced manufacturing and clean energy technologies become disrupted.
Thus, GRIP-ARM breaks new ground in the political economy and development studies scholarship in three ways:
(a) We examine the causal factors as regards why new industrial policies linked to critical minerals have emerged since 2015;
(b) We assess the key factors explaining the success and failure of specific mineral-based industrial policies being adopted by Brazil, China and Kazakhstan; and
(c) We examine how advanced industrialized countries seeking access to critical minerals, notably the European Union, South Korea and Japan, are re-organizing their business strategies and industrial policies in response to growing geopolitical uncertainties and supply chain disruptions.
GRIP-ARM followed the timeline as outlined in the implementation plan. The following activities were conducted:
YEAR 1 (February 2021-2022)
The PhD students were appointed in 2021 while research assistants were hired to support fieldwork preparation. An official launch on December 2021 was held in hybrid format due to existing COVID-19 rules of social distancing. A project website was started with the support of the host institution but completion was delayed until early 2023.
YEAR 2 (February 2022-2023)
Some data collection for Work Package 4 was conducted, mostly focussed in European Union policies on access to critical raw materials and supply chain management. Additionally, the PI conducted several online interviews and participated in closed door meetings which became a new data collection technique and a credible resource for the research team in terms of gaining multiple perspectives on CRMs and energy transition. PHD1 (Kazakhstan) has continuously coordinated her work with the PI substantial efforts were given in training the student on literature review and utilizing multiple languages in setting up the research plan. PhD2 (Brazil) has requested for a change of primary supervisor, in which the PI has become a secondary supervisor and a new committee was formed to support the PhD candidate.
YEAR 3 (February-September 2023)
Fieldwork data collection was initiated in South Korea focussed in acquiring specific national level economic data and specialized reports. There were also targeted interviews with government think tanks to outline the general landscape of the policy debate. PhD1 and Postdoc began their preparation for data collection.
In terms of key achievements, the PI is now recognized as the ‘reference researcher’ on the theme of geopolitics of critical raw materials and supply chains of clean energy technologies and advanced manufacturing. From the beginning of the grant, the PI has already given 12 guest lectures, served as an expert panelist/resource speaker for 20 events, has participated in 7 panels in conferences/workshops, and has organized two specialized workshops and 2 medium-sized conferences (roughly 40 participants each event). The list can be found below.
In terms of societal engagement and dissemination of research with policy-makers and other research benefactors, the PI has been invited in several high profile events. Furthermore, EURAXESS ASEAN has regularly invited the PI as a Speaker in several career management talks to encourage Asian scholars to apply for the ERC. The complete list of the activities is in the Annex of Scientific Report.
YEAR 1 (February 2021-2022)
The PhD students were appointed in 2021 while research assistants were hired to support fieldwork preparation. An official launch on December 2021 was held in hybrid format due to existing COVID-19 rules of social distancing. A project website was started with the support of the host institution but completion was delayed until early 2023.
YEAR 2 (February 2022-2023)
Some data collection for Work Package 4 was conducted, mostly focussed in European Union policies on access to critical raw materials and supply chain management. Additionally, the PI conducted several online interviews and participated in closed door meetings which became a new data collection technique and a credible resource for the research team in terms of gaining multiple perspectives on CRMs and energy transition. PHD1 (Kazakhstan) has continuously coordinated her work with the PI substantial efforts were given in training the student on literature review and utilizing multiple languages in setting up the research plan. PhD2 (Brazil) has requested for a change of primary supervisor, in which the PI has become a secondary supervisor and a new committee was formed to support the PhD candidate.
YEAR 3 (February-September 2023)
Fieldwork data collection was initiated in South Korea focussed in acquiring specific national level economic data and specialized reports. There were also targeted interviews with government think tanks to outline the general landscape of the policy debate. PhD1 and Postdoc began their preparation for data collection.
In terms of key achievements, the PI is now recognized as the ‘reference researcher’ on the theme of geopolitics of critical raw materials and supply chains of clean energy technologies and advanced manufacturing. From the beginning of the grant, the PI has already given 12 guest lectures, served as an expert panelist/resource speaker for 20 events, has participated in 7 panels in conferences/workshops, and has organized two specialized workshops and 2 medium-sized conferences (roughly 40 participants each event). The list can be found below.
In terms of societal engagement and dissemination of research with policy-makers and other research benefactors, the PI has been invited in several high profile events. Furthermore, EURAXESS ASEAN has regularly invited the PI as a Speaker in several career management talks to encourage Asian scholars to apply for the ERC. The complete list of the activities is in the Annex of Scientific Report.
There have been significant changes in the scientific focus of the ERC grant. The following changes have been implemented, which from the expert opinion of the PI would make the project more groundbreaking:
(1) We have shifted away from a narrow focus on rare earth elements (REEs) towards CRMs. This means that the country cases have been given more freedom to refocus their empirical coverage in line with the respective research interest of the team member and aligned with real world changes.
(2) To build cohesion across the work packages, we have focussed on critical minerals as they are connected with specific sectors, specifically electric vehicles, battery and storage, and semi-conductors. These sectors have been identified in major policy documents in the EU, Japan and South Korea as strategic sectors for industrial competitiveness and national security concerns.
(3) We have developed new methodologies in response to growing difficulty in gaining access to interviews and policy elites. Firstly, the PI has been conducting data collection through participation in high level policy meetings. Secondly, the research team (Post-doctoral fellow and PhD1) has actively participated in industry conferences and sectoral meetings to subsequently collect data based on corporate ethnographic techniques. The research team plans to hold a methods-focussed workshop, which will eventually become the first co-authored book-length monograph for our project.
(4) The PI built and consolidated a network of scholars situating the Brazilian case study in the wider Latin America-Asian relationship. He mobilized to organize a workshop entitled Fair Energy Transition: The Role of Latin America and its Relationship with East and Southeast Asia. We co-organised with Universidad de Santo Tomas a workshop in Tunja, Colombia. We anticipate the event to facilitate a second book project to be submitted to a major university press.
(5) The PI brought together colleagues from the Science Technology and Innovation Policy Institute (STIPI) and City University Hong Kong (CityU) to organize a conference in Bangkok, Thailand. We anticipate the event to facilitate a third book project to be submitted to a major university press.
(6) To expand the reach of the project beyond academia, the PI launched the GRIP-ARM Policy Paper Series and a new initiative in the platform Substack.
(1) We have shifted away from a narrow focus on rare earth elements (REEs) towards CRMs. This means that the country cases have been given more freedom to refocus their empirical coverage in line with the respective research interest of the team member and aligned with real world changes.
(2) To build cohesion across the work packages, we have focussed on critical minerals as they are connected with specific sectors, specifically electric vehicles, battery and storage, and semi-conductors. These sectors have been identified in major policy documents in the EU, Japan and South Korea as strategic sectors for industrial competitiveness and national security concerns.
(3) We have developed new methodologies in response to growing difficulty in gaining access to interviews and policy elites. Firstly, the PI has been conducting data collection through participation in high level policy meetings. Secondly, the research team (Post-doctoral fellow and PhD1) has actively participated in industry conferences and sectoral meetings to subsequently collect data based on corporate ethnographic techniques. The research team plans to hold a methods-focussed workshop, which will eventually become the first co-authored book-length monograph for our project.
(4) The PI built and consolidated a network of scholars situating the Brazilian case study in the wider Latin America-Asian relationship. He mobilized to organize a workshop entitled Fair Energy Transition: The Role of Latin America and its Relationship with East and Southeast Asia. We co-organised with Universidad de Santo Tomas a workshop in Tunja, Colombia. We anticipate the event to facilitate a second book project to be submitted to a major university press.
(5) The PI brought together colleagues from the Science Technology and Innovation Policy Institute (STIPI) and City University Hong Kong (CityU) to organize a conference in Bangkok, Thailand. We anticipate the event to facilitate a third book project to be submitted to a major university press.
(6) To expand the reach of the project beyond academia, the PI launched the GRIP-ARM Policy Paper Series and a new initiative in the platform Substack.