What we can contribute:
- Assessment of raw material cycles and circularity
- Quantification of raw material demand and supply
- Quantification of recycling flows, secondary raw material flows (potential recycling from old and new scrap) and recycling indicators
- Criticality assessment
- Expertise in CRMs, base metals and steel
- Expertise in recycling systems and market analysis for secondary raw materials
- Assessment of drivers and barriers for new technologies in the system
- Environmental, economic and social sustainability impact assessments, including
- LCA & prospective LCA
- Social life cycle assessments, social hotspots analysis
- Environmentally extended input-output analysis
- Techno-economic analysis
- Governance, country and raw material sustainability indicators
- Analysis of political framework conditions, policy mixes and policy impact analysis
- Expertise in social innovation
- Knowledge on community engagement and acceptance, including land-use conflicts and Indigenous rights; capacity building (social licence to operate, just transitions, FPIC, multi-level governance perspectives and sustainability transitions)
- Experience in designing, conducting and evaluating consumer surveys (including motivations for behaviors and behavioral changes)

What we are searching for:
Consortium with especially technical partners.

Fraunhofer ISI is a globally recognized center of excellence in innovation research. The nine departments each focus on different areas, enabling them to address key issues in innovation dynamics and system transformation in an interdisciplinary manner and from a holistic perspective. The institute is developing new approaches in system research. It has close ties to numerous universities and research institutions in Germany and abroad.
The Sustainability and Infrastructure Systems Department takes a systems approach to analyzing the conditions for transforming entire systems toward environmental and social compatibility. In addition to ecological aspects, economic, political, and social aspects are also taken into account.
Within this department, the Business Unit Raw Materials aims to contribute to a more sustainable use and re-use of primary and secondary raw materials. With this group, researchers strive to understand society’s metabolism regarding mineral raw materials in a systemic and quantitative manner, assess security of supply, and evaluate potential future raw materials requirements in the face of technological change. The results aim to support stakeholders from policymaking (e.g., parliaments, ministries, government agencies), industry (e.g., metal producer associations, manufacturing companies) and civil society (e.g., NGOs) with data, insights and options to make better decisions.
The Business Unit Sustainability and Innovation Policy has extensive expertise in sustainability transformations, technology-related innovation, system-level transitions, policy implications, and sustainability assessments. Its work focuses on analyzing the environmental, economic, and social impacts of technical and social innovations. These analyses are complemented by research on policy measures that can help environmentally friendly innovations realize their full potential.