Innovation and Education for the Sustainable Development of Mineral Raw Materials

Dear Colleagues,

A key concept of the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is to ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote the sustainable development principles (target 4.7 of SDGs), considering it as an essential means to achieve the SDGs. Since the RM sector is characterized by complexity and uncertainty, as there are environmental, economic, and social limitations, new innovative solutions need to be provided within the whole life cycle of mineral raw material with the aim to improve the overall performance of the sector and its perception by the wider society and the relevant stakeholders. In this context, innovation and education for the SD is expected to significantly assist the mineral RM sector to face and mitigate the risks, such as the mining in challenging environments, resource efficiency in mineral processes, recycling, and material chain optimization for end-of-life products, the substitution of critical and toxic materials in products and for optimized performance, design of products and services for the circular economy, automation, robotic and remotely controlled equipment (e.g., drilling) and transportation, and obtaining the social license to operate.

This Special Issue on “Innovation and Education for the Sustainable Development of Mineral Raw Materials” intends to document and promote scholarly research and projects that investigate the current and future educational needs of the mineral RM sector toward innovative and sustainable solutions, the use of novel pedagogical tools to promote active learning, distant learning included, the skills and the competencies of learners required for achieving the SDGs, learners’ engagement to apply innovative and sustainable RM (engineering) practice, and the role of stakeholders (HEIs, industry, NGOs, state authorities) in the education of SD principles in the RM sector.

Topics include but are not limited to:

• University policies and practices towards the achievement of SDGs in the RM sector;
• Competences developed during higher education for Innovation and SD in the RM sector;
• Novel pedagogical tools used in higher education for the SD of RM;
• University business cooperation as a tool toward innovation in the whole life cycle of RM;
• The role of life-long learning in improving the sustainability of the RM sector;
• KPIs to assess the impact of higher education institutes toward innovation and SD;
• Good education practices and case studies for application of SD principles in the RM sector;
• The role of innovation in enhancing the public acceptance of the RM sector.

Dr. Katerina Adam
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• education towards SD in the RM sector
• innovation in the RM sector
• SD and SLO of the RM sector
• life-long learning and sustainable performance of the RM sector
• pedagological tools in higher education towards SD in the RM sector