The scientific exchange between the two institutions will be intensified and is to be manifested in a cooperation agreement.

Since March he is appointed for the chair of innovation and technology ­manage­ment at the Dresden uni­versity. Dr. Simone Raatz and Prof. Jens Gutzmer informed him about the research at HIF and the successfull spinn-offs. Moreo­ver, the visionaire circulareconomy project FlexiPlant was presented.

The 18th Freiberg Short Course in Economic Geology will be held at the Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology from the 11th until the 15th of December with the focus on predictive geometallurgy. The block course consists of a series of lectures that are accompanied by practical exercises.

One of the challenges confronting our society today is the sustainable use of our resources. The concept of a circular economy, in which products, materials and componen­ts are reused and recycled within a loop, thus generating hardly any waste, is intended to meet this challenge. In order to reco­ver raw materials of all kinds (e.g. rare earth elements) in an energy-efficient and function-preserving way, it is necessary to develop a new generation of adaptive and flexible ­techno­logies and digital platforms for the processing and recycling. FlexiPlant will be a globally unique research infrastructure, to develop and test scientific models, methods and ­techno­logies for the mechanical processing of raw material in a pilot scale. The digitalization and automation of the processing system are required for transferring the processes to industrial scale. As an open transfer platform, FlexiPlant will provide a variety of research and cooperation opportunities for interested partners from academia, industry and society.