Brussels hosted a high-level validation workshop signed by the SCRREEN3 project, bringing together some of the most authoritative minds working today on Critical Raw Materials, from EU institutions to industry and technical experts, around a shared goal: supporting DG-GROW in the next assessment of the EU critical raw materials by collecting and challenging data that will feed this assessment .
The event was inaugurated on February, 10th by Milan Grohol from DG GROW and Stéphane Bourg, SCRREEN coordinator, marking the strategic relevance of the workshop for Europe’s industrial resilience and raw materials security. Over the course of the event, running until 13 February 2026, more than 80 consortium partners and external experts engaged in an intensive technical programme with over 60 dedicated sessions, organised in three parallel rooms to maximise depth and coverage.
A uniquely dense technical programme: 60+ validation sessions in three parallel tracks
Designed as a true expert working session rather than a conventional conference, the workshop adopted a structured format: short, focused meetings dedicated to the validation and refinement of data covering raw materials value chains, held in parallel in three rooms.
The agenda reflects a material-by-material approach, ensuring systematic coverage across the CRM landscape and beyond. Sessions addressed, among others:
- Metals and strategic elements for advanced technologies, including tungsten, tantalum, niobium, gallium, germanium, indium, hafnium, zirconium, titanium and molybdenum.
- Battery and energy-transition-relevant materials, with dedicated discussions on lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese, natural graphite and rare earth for permanent magnets.
- Critical industrial minerals and construction-related streams, such as feldspar, bentonite, baryte, mica, kaolin clay, gypsum, limestone, silica sand, aggregates, plus magnesite & magnesia and perlite.
- High-impact supply and processing topics spanning rare earths, platinum group metals, scandium, as well as phosphorus/phosphate rock, potash, sulphur, tin, antimony, arsenic.
- Materials relevant to cross-sector dependencies, including aluminium (alumina and bauxite), iron ore, copper, lead, zinc, and selected non-metallic / special categories listed in the agenda (e.g., helium, noble gas, and bio-based resources such as balsa wood and roundwood).
The workshop’s core value lies in its function: turning evidence into validated, decision-ready knowledge. By convening a large pool of practitioners and experts around highly granular sessions, SCRREEN3 enabled a robust review of the data that will be used for the criticality assessment and capitalized in the EU CRMs factsheets. These factsheets, developed by SCRREEN3, reflect the best available technical understanding across supply chains, industrial uses, and material-specific challenges.
A European expert network in action
With its scale, density, and material breadth, this Brussels workshop stands out as a flagship moment for the SCRREEN3 community, showcasing how a European expert network can mobilise quickly and work deeply to strengthen the knowledge base supporting Europe’s raw materials strategy.
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The SCRREEN3 project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement N° 101138060