Anglo-Australian multinational mining company Rio Tinto has committed $150 million to create a 'Center for Future Materials' project to find ways to provide materials for the energy transition.
The 'Rio Tinto Centre for Future Materials,' led by Imperial College London, will fund research programs to transform the way vital materials are produced, used and recycled. It also aims to make these materials more environmentally, economically and socially sustainable.
Under the partnership, Rio Tinto and Imperial College will define a set of major global challenges that need to be addressed. These will form the basis of the first research programs the project pursues in partnership with a selection of international academic institutions.
The project's first research programs will be funded in 2024, once it is created in the second half of 2023. Rio Tinto will invest $150 million in the center over a 10-year period.
'For the world to reach net zero, we must find better ways to provide the materials it needs,' Rio Tinto Chief Executive Officer Jakob Stausholm was quoted as saying in a statement.
Mary Ryan, a professor and Imperial's vice dean of research (engineering) and a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, emphasized the significance of materials that human society relies on for housing, transportation, energy, communications and health, highlighting the necessity to develop sustainable methods of extracting, processing, and reusing these resources.
'Moving to a truly sustainable society requires a holistic approach to these complex industrial processes... By working hand-in-hand with other leading international institutions, we will create a truly multidisciplinary, global effort to drive the next industrial revolution in harmony with nature,' she concluded.
By Duygu Alhan
Anadolu Agency
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