International Round Table on Criticality in Business Practice

• Unité de recherche: SEFRI
• Numéro de projet: 23.00148

Résumé des résultats (Abstract) (Anglais)

Critical raw materials are materials that are needed for current and future products and technologies, but face now or soon a significant risk of not being sufficiently available. This can occur for a variety of reasons: e.g., because the materials are scarce in the Earth’s crust, because they are only available in specific regions, because their price is so volatile that there are periods when they are unaffordable, or because their mining and processing cause environmental or social problems. These materials often have special properties that make them important for modern applications such as electronics or new energy technologies. IRTC-Business is an international network of experts in critical raw materials who work on definitions and assessments regarding which materials are or will be critical in the future. Because „criticality“ depends on the perspective – e.g., how scarce a material is in one’s own region, or how much of it is needed in an economy or a technological sector – these approaches differ, and industries often do not know in which regard criticality might affect their company. IRTC-Business organizes international expert meetings and publishes guidance documents on this topic and will support companies in knowing more about which materials are critical for them, and how they can manage their use of these materials.