Rio Tinto Centre for Future Materials: Call for Participation in ‘Circularity of Energy Storage Materials’ Challenge
Info session: July 9th, 2025
Background
The Rio Tinto Centre for Future Materials is a US $150-million, 10 year research endeavour to change how we produce, use and recycle vital minerals and materials. Academic experts work in diverse, interdisciplinary teams, together with researchers from Imperial College London, the University of California, Berkeley, the Australian National University, and the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, to make material extraction, production and usage more environmentally, economically and socially sustainable.
The Centre’s inaugural Challenge focused on addressing a major bottleneck to electrification: “Delivering future material systems for energy transitions with integrity: Overcoming the copper challenge”. Under this program to date, UBC PIs were awarded $3M in project funding across 3 projects, with another 7 proposals currently under review.
Circular Economy Challenge & Project Scoping Workshop
Electric vehicles, wind turbines, batteries, solar plants and new infrastructure in the built environment will require a significant amount of materials in the next few decades. The Circular Economy Challenge is dedicated to finding innovative solutions to deliver the materials required for the future, with improved ESG outcomes.
After the launch of each new challenge program, a 4-day project scoping workshop will be facilitated; this one will be held in Johannesburg, South Africa the week of November 17th 2025. Each of the 5 participating universities is invited to send a diverse delegation of 10 Faculty members to develop the scopes of research that we’ll advance collectively under this challenge.
Funding is available for ambitious, interdisciplinary teams with ground-breaking ideas that have the potential to create transformational impact in circular value chains. Research advancing material upcycling and long-duration energy storage will be explored, among other topics yet to be defined.
Join us to Learn More and Get Involved
To learn more about the Circular Economy Challenge and the Centre’s project development & funding award processes, please join us for an information session on;
Date: Wednesday, July 9th, 2025
Time: 9:00am – 9:45am
Location:
In person: Earth Sciences Building (ESB) 5108
Zoom:
https://ubc.zoom.us/j/8249147110?pwd=NTlNOGk4WEJ1d1ZlQW9aL1puUUJSUT09
Meeting ID: 824 914 7110
Passcode: 466023
One tap mobile
+17789072071,,8249147110#,,,,,,0#,,466023#
Expressions of Interest (EOIs) to join the UBC workshop delegation are due July 16th (note: this date has been moved up a week from the original page posting) via email to Bernadette Mah (bernadette.mah@ubc.ca) . EOI template can be accessed here:
Please direct any questions to; Kyra Laverdiere – Sr. Manager, Research Partnerships.
For reference, Copper Challenge projects funded by the Rio Tinto Centre for Future Materials can be viewed here.