Area of investment and support

Area of investment and support: ISPF UK-Canada sustainable critical minerals research partnerships

The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) is supporting five teams of UK researchers to collaborate with Canadian research teams, researching efficiency and reduced environmental impacts for mining and recycling of critical minerals. The programme is funded by the International Science Partnerships Fund (ISPF).

Budget:
£1 million, funded through the International Science Partnerships Fund
Duration:
This is a single programme running from 2025 to 2027, with one funding round
Partners involved:
NERC, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada

The scope and what we're doing

This programme is supporting UK researchers to partner with Canadian research teams funded through the NSERC Alliance Missions grants in critical minerals, to build on the research being undertaken in shared priority research areas of responsible and sustainable mining and developing a critical mineral circular economy.

UK researchers are collaborating with a relevant Alliance Missions research project to:

  • add value to the research
  • expand the project in line with UK expertise and priorities
  • forge new partnerships and collaborations

A key aspect of the collaborations is the promotion of knowledge and skills exchange between UK and Canadian research communities, laying the foundations for future collaborative research. The programme will provide the opportunity for enhanced coordination, knowledge and skill-sharing across disciplines and sectors related to responsible and sustainable mining.

Research under this programme is addressing two challenge areas.

Challenge one

This challenge aims to:

  • minimise the environmental impacts of mining
  • optimise efficiency
  • support data-driven decision-making across critical mineral value chains from exploration to recycling and recovery

This will be achieved through the development or advancement of:

  • knowledge and understanding
  • models
  • processes
  • tools and technologies

Challenge two

This challenge aims to develop efficient options to advance to a circular economy with less reliance on primary mineral resources. The developed options will take into consideration the environmental trade-offs, co-benefits and potential unintended consequences of a given approach. Examples include:

  • mine reclamation
  • critical mineral recycling
  • reprocessing of critical mineral stocks and creating value from residual mining waste

Outcomes

This programme will deliver the following outcomes:

  • excellent research to improve knowledge, capabilities and innovations to optimise efficiency, minimise environmental impacts and advance a circular critical mineral economy
  • enhanced collaboration and synergy between UK and Canada critical minerals research communities, resulting in greater impact than could be achieved alone
  • strengthened capacity and capability for UK and Canadian researchers to support future partnership
  • enhanced knowledge and skills transfer between UK and Canadian researchers
  • identifying shared future research priorities related to critical minerals

This programme is funded by the UK government’s International Science Partnerships Fund (ISPF). The fund is managed by the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology, and delivered by a consortium of the UK’s leading research and innovation bodies, including UKRI.

Why we're doing it

The NERC strategic delivery plan sets out our ambitions to embed environmental science to support sustainable development and innovation (objective 2), and to pursue positive outcomes for business and the environment while minimising environmental impacts (objective 4).

This investment will support environmental science’s critical role in providing innovative solutions for securing mineral resources essential for the clean energy transition, in a responsible and sustainable way. This will contribute to green growth while limiting negative environmental impacts.

Mineral resources are central to manufacturing and infrastructure development essential to achieve the green and digital economy. Many of these minerals are designated critical due to their importance and the potential for disruption of supply.

Global demand and international competition for technology-critical mineral resources is expected to quadruple by 2040. Current demand is already outstripping the rate of mineral production, further increasing pressure on the natural environment.

We face a critical resource challenge in responsibly and sustainably securing the mineral resources needed to reach net zero, while protecting the future growth and resilience of the UK economy and achieving global sustainable development goals.

The UK Critical Minerals Refresh published in March 2023 sets out UK government ambitions to improve the resilience of critical minerals supply chains. To achieve these ambitions, significant research challenges remain that need to be addressed to secure supply for critical UK growth sectors and support the transition to net zero.

In March 2023 the UK and Canada agreed a landmark agreement to cooperate on critical minerals aiming to:

  • deepen UK and Canada engagement on critical minerals
  • prioritise critical mineral security of supply and joint economic prosperity
  • attain high environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards and innovation throughout the value chain

In April 2023 the UK–Canada Joint Science and Technology Cooperation Committee identified key joint UK and Canada research priority areas to develop solutions for responsibly securing mineral resources. These include responsible and sustainable mining and developing a critical mineral circular economy.

In January 2024 the UK and Canada signed a refreshed partnership to further strengthen wider collaboration on science and innovation and identified several key priority technology areas which rely on critical minerals, including semiconductors and clean energy technology.

This programme directly addresses UK and Canada ambitions to strengthen collaboration on critical minerals research, in shared priority research areas.

Past projects, outcomes and impact

Five projects were funded under the funding opportunity UK–Canada sustainable critical minerals research partnerships and will run from May 2025 to April 2027.

Who to contact

Ask a question about this area of investment

Earth, Energy and Resources team

Email: EarthEnergyResources@nerc.ukri.org

We aim to respond within seven working days.

Governance, management and panels

This programme is overseen by a Programme Advisory Group, consisting of representatives from the funders and any additional external experts deemed necessary.

Last updated: 21 March 2025

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