[Original press release 10 July 2025 at Environment, University of Waterloo.]
The University of Waterloo’s Lumet – Illuminating Metal Supply Chains project has secured an additional $50,000 in collaborative funding through a new joint grant with researchers at University College London (UCL). The boost builds on Lumet’s existing $1 million NSERC Alliance Missions grant (2024-2027), bringing fresh momentum to efforts that aim to make supply chains for critical minerals such as nickel, germanium and lithium more transparent, responsible and resilient.
Led by Dr. Steven B. Young, professor in the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development (SEED), Lumet integrates engineering, sustainability science and management to “illuminate” environmental and social performance along mineral value chains. The project’s Canadian-focused research maps voluntary sustainability standards and partners with industry to address the patchwork of ESG requirements facing producers. The Waterloo group is complemented by researchers in the Department of Materials Engineering at The University of British Columbia and The Robert M. Buchan Department of Mining at Queen’s University.
The newly awarded UK–Canada partnership grant called MINERS (critical Minerals for Resilience and sustainability), worth £239,957, links Lumet with leading researchers at University College London (UCL) and the British Geological Survey. The UCL collaborators—housed in The Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction and UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources— and bring expertise in supply-chain modelling and input-output analysis of global critical-mineral flows. MINERS tackles a growing policy question: How can countries secure the critical minerals they need for clean-energy technologies while ensuring those minerals are responsibly sourced?
“This new partnership with UCL lets us compare and connect Canadian and UK perspectives on critical-mineral governance,” says Professor Young. “With the extra resources we can extend our data-driven materials flow and traceability analyses, while giving students valuable international exposure.”
The collaboration will create policy briefs, guidance for mining and mid-stream companies, and tools for tracking sustainability metrics. The team also plans a workshop in London and a webinar series.
For more on Lumet’s research and partners, visit lumet.ca.