Introduction to a new series: Critical and strategic raw materials in the European Union and Hungary – building a multimedia data collection at the University of Miskolc

Abstract

Since 2008, the European Union has assembled research, development, and educational activities at various levels together with organizations and budgetary resources to increase the security of the supply of raw materials being particularly important for the manufacturing industry. In 2011, it published a list of these materials for the first time. The then 14-member list has now expanded to 34 members. In 2023, a decision was made in the EU’s highest government bodies to enact the directives on strategic and critical raw materials.
Since 2012, the University of Miskolc has been conducting extensive research and data collection into the domestic situation of critical raw materials. It has published its results in a 10-volume monograph series. With the initiative outlined here, the TEKH technical college of the Faculty of Earth and Environmental Sciences intends to eliminate an information gap by expanding the evaluations having processed the 14 critical elements at the time. KEM plans to achieve this goal by implementing the Critical Elements Marathon program. It also wants to use the partial tasks of the project as a kind of training to improve the written and oral presentation skills of Hungarian and foreign students in Hungarian and English. Our students specialised in earth and environmental sciences are currently involved in the implementation of the program, led by the university instructors.