Author Description

Knowledge is essential for the sustainable and secure supply of raw materials, both primary and secondary, due to their role in the European Union's (EU) economy and society. Proper knowledge management promotes a globally competitive raw material sector in a broad sense along the whole value chain. This applies not only to exploration, extraction, processing, manufacturing and recycling, but also investments, innovation, trade, spatial development, skills and education. Knowledge is also key for policy support, informed debate and decision-making. The Raw Materials Information System (RMIS) is the European Commission's (EC) reference web-based knowledge platform on non-food, non-energy raw materials from primary to secondary sources. The RMIS is a permanent website of the Joint Research Centre (JRC) Science Hub, originally a commitment in the 2015 Circular Economy Action Plan(CEAP). The RMIS is a core component of the EU Raw Materials Knowledge Base (EU RMKB), the vital interface between European stakeholders and the EU policy community. In particular, it facilitates harmonised availability of key data and analyses, highlights priority needs, as well as contributes to coordinated dissemination. The RMIS has significantly developed since its launch in 2015. During this six years the RMIS reached its mature stage, supporting the the implementation of numerous EU Community policy fields which required its services, as also explicitly manifested in their sectoral policy documents. The RMIS has become a well-known, reliable information and knowledge source with a well-established stakeholders network of ca. 200+ experts, a wider interest group of circa 1400 recipients of the RMIS Newsletters, and the several thousand visitors who look for raw materials related information at the RMIS each month. The RMIS is expected to fulfil an increasingly broad spectrum of knowledge needs related to raw materials. Towards this end, the RMIS knowledge provider network includes most re