Global Centers Track 2: SuReMin: Sustainable, resilient, responsible global minerals supply chain

为了以应对气候变化所需的规模和速度进行脱碳，对能够提供信息和加强可持续国际矿产供应链的有用和有用的研究的需求日益增加。相应地，SuReMin将进行研究和开发教育机会，以指导这一供应链的发展。第2轨道设计阶段将需要制定采矿废物管理、再利用和处置的研究议程，社区参与的矿物开采社会和环境生命周期评估，以及低成本、可扩展的环境和社会数据收集方法。SuReMin的创始合作者包括西北大学、蒙大拿技术大学、智利天主教大学(UC)、可持续矿产研究所(SMI)--位于智利圣地亚哥的昆士兰大学(澳大利亚)的一个实体、安第斯大学和墨西哥的伊比利亚-美洲大学。这些合作伙伴聚集了专业知识和观点，可以催化前沿、有影响力的研究，同时还可以培训未来的工程师成为全球性、协作性和跨学科的创新者。值得注意的是，SuReMin的国际合作伙伴包括在内，因为来自全球南方--包括智利和墨西哥--的声音在可持续采矿研究中的代表性明显不足，尽管该地区每年仅锂离子电池的关键矿物就贡献了超过3500万吨。SuReMin的Track 2设计阶段目标是建立一个综合研究团队，并通过探索和完善研究、教育和扩大参与活动，确定通向未来全球中心的明确途径。为了制定该中心的研究议程，SuReMin将举办三次研讨会，收集大学、政府机构、行业、非营利组织和社区的反馈，以帮助其制定。研讨会的主题是1)低成本、可扩展的环境和社会数据获取技术，2)可持续采矿废物管理、再利用和处置，以及3)社区参与的矿物开采生命周期评估。SuReMin还将开发一个数据来源概要，以量化智利和美国采矿对社会和环境的影响。此外，试点项目将为智利的铜或锂采矿社区提供一个新的、社区参与的LCA，一个筛选潜在问题尾矿库基础设施的低计算成本平台，以及以最低的化学和能源要求从采矿渗滤液中回收金属的新方法。为了探索和完善教育规划，SuReMin将支持本科生徒步前往智利，提供研究生研究研讨会，并探索将西北大学的体验式国际教育项目扩展到智利的更多合作伙伴。该奖项由全球中心计划资助，这是一项创新计划，旨在支持受使用启发的研究，以应对与气候变化和/或清洁能源相关的全球挑战。Track 2设计奖支持美国的研究人员将国际团队聚集在一起，开发研究问题和合作伙伴关系，进行景观分析，合成数据，和/或建立多方利益相关者网络，以推动他们未来更大规模的应用启发研究。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

To decarbonize at the scale and pace required to address climate change, there is an increasing demand for useful and usable research that can inform and strengthen a sustainable international minerals supply chain. Accordingly, SuReMin will conduct research and develop educational opportunities to guide the development of this supply chain. The Track 2 Design Phase will entail developing a research agenda for the management, reuse and disposal of mining waste, community-engaged social and environmental life cycle assessment of minerals mining, and low-cost, scalable methods for environmental and social data collection. SuReMin’s founding collaborators include Northwestern University, Montana Technical University, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (UC), the Sustainable Minerals Institute (SMI) – an entity of the University of Queensland (Australia) located in Santiago, Chile, the Universidad de los Andes, and the Universidad Iberoamericana (Mexico). These partners convene expertise and perspective that can catalyze cutting edge, impactful research while also training future engineers to be global, collaborative, and transdisciplinary innovators. Inclusion of SuReMin’s international partners is notable because voices from the Global South – including Chile and Mexico - are notably underrepresented in sustainable mining research, despite this region contributing over 35 million metric tons of critical minerals for lithium-ion batteries alone annually. SuReMin’s Track 2 Design Phase goal is to establish an integrated research team and identify a clear pathway towards a future Global Center by exploring and refining research, education, and broadening participation activities. To develop the Center’s research agenda, SuReMin will host three workshops to gather feedback from universities, government agencies, industry, non-profit organizations, and communities to aid in its crafting. The workshop topics are 1) low-cost, scalable acquisition techniques for environmental and social data, 2) sustainable mining waste management, reuse, and disposal, and 3) community-engaged life cycle assessment of minerals mining. SuReMin will also develop a compendium of data sources to quantify social and environmental effects of mining in Chile and the U.S. Furthermore, pilot projects will contribute a new, community-engaged LCA for a copper or lithium mining community in Chile, a low computational-cost platform to screen potentially problematic tailing dam infrastructure, and new methods to recover metals from mining leachates with minimal chemical and energy requirements. To explore and refine education programming, SuReMin will support an undergraduate trek to Chile, offer a graduate research seminar, and explore the expansion of Northwestern’s experiential international education program to additional partners in Chile. This award is funded by the Global Centers program, an innovative program that supports use-inspired research addressing global challenges related to climate change and/or clean energy. Track 2 design awards support U.S.-based researchers to bring together international teams to develop research questions and partnerships, conduct landscape analyses, synthesize data, and/or build multi-stakeholder networks to advance their use-inspired research at larger scale in the future.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.