ROBOMINERS Consortium Meeting with LPRC in Austria

The ROBOMINERS Consortium, in which LPRC participates, hosted its first in-person meeting in almost 2 years. Between the 16 and 18 of November 2021, the partners were in Leoben (Austria) to discuss the evolution of the project. LPRC members Luís Lopes and Márcio Tameirão represented the company in this event. ROBOMINERS’ innovative approach combines the creation of a new mining ecosystem with novel ideas from other sectors, in particular with the inclusion of disruptive concepts from robotics.

The first day of the meeting started with the review and updates on the various Work Packages (WPs) of the project. During this session, LPRC presented the work that is being implemented on WP8 – Active Roadmapping and Clustering, which the team leads. The previous work was analyzed and next steps were defined for the months to come. During the afternoon, the consortium was divided into different sessions. In one of this sessions, LPRC hosted an interactive Horizon Scanning Exercise (following a previous one) with the ROBOMINERS experts. This exercise aimed at analysing “hits” – aspects of relevance for the implementation of ROBOMINERS – and study how they can impact and be important for the continuation of the project. The results will now be processed by the LPRC team.

On the second day, the ROBOMINERS partners visited a mine in neighboring Slovenia – Mežica mine – which is under consideration for a test site location for the project’s demonstrations. On the third and final day, and back to Leoben, the project hosted its 2nd Clustering event entitled “The key technological obstacles towards a fully autonomous robotic mining (eco)system”, a Twinning Event organised between Leoben, Brussels and online. LPRC took part in the preparation of this Clustering event.

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LPRC was in the Madeira Island for the first in person INCORE meeting

After a few months of online collaboration, the INCORE consortium had the first opportunity to meet in person to discuss the project progress in the Madeira Island between 9 and 11 November 2021. LPRC members Luís Lopes and Márcio Tameirão were in this Outermost Region island not only to help define next activities and steps but also to bring coordination to the communication and dissemination efforts of the project.

The three-day meeting was planned according to the following schedule:

  1. 9th November 2021: Welcome by Univerirsity of Madeira´s Dean and Vice Dean: brief introduction of the consortium, short presentation about INCORE’s concept, background and objectives, emphasizing its positive impact in the entrepreneurship and innovation sectors in the EU Outermost Regions. The introduction of the project was well received by UMa’s dean and vice dean, who showed a strong support to the initiative.
  2. 10th November 2021: 8th INCORE Consortium Meeting: The task leaders related to Work Package 2 – Setting the Stage – presented the work progress and the produced deliverables that mapped topics on Contextual analysis of the regional innovation environment, Institutional capacities and information exchange, Training and mentoring programmes to be developed in INCORE and the Action Plan and Roadmap to implementation.
  3. 11th November 2021: 1st open INCORE regional event: a hybrid event held in Universidade da Madeira, as well as online. The opening session was conducted by the vice dean of UMa, followed by the Project Coordinator Nuno Almeida, who provided a presentation about the project. After that, the next session titled “Innovation Capacity Building in EU’s Outermost Regions” counted with two invited guest speakers:
    • Introduction to Entrepreneurial Dynamics and Social-Economic Impacts in ORs (Miguel Amaral)
    • Requirements for Resilient Innovation Ecosystems in ORs (Oliver Schwabe)

After intense meetings during these three days, the INCORE consortium reviewed the past and current progress of the tasks, and aligned the work plan for the upcoming months. In addition, it was an opportunity to develop team building activities, and strengthen the partnership within the project.

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