Deadline:
May 31, 2025
Location(s)
Belgium Germany Sweden
Ghent, Freiberg, Uppsala
Overview
The International Master of Science in Sustainable and Innovative Natural Resource Management (SINReM) educates students to develop sustainable solutions across the entire raw materials value chain. From resource exploration to sustainable extraction processes and the development of more sustainable materials and recycling, students are taught to find new solutions that work towards the achievement of a circular economy.
Details
Our three partner universities bring together a combination of expertise that makes up the entire raw materials value chain. We maintain close links with industry partners, delivering their insights for the development of a new type of professional that has a mission to bring more sustainability into the raw materials sector.
Uppsala University delivers extensive knowledge on the exploration of rare georesources. It also focuses on innovation management and entrepreneurship training. TU Bergakademie Freiberg offers its proficiency in sustainable and environmentally friendly extraction technologies. Ghent University contributes through its leading expertise in the circular economy, environmental science and technology, recovery of resources from waste, and sustainability assessment.
Programme
SINReM is a 2-year master programme (120 ECTS credits) leading towards the joint diploma of International Master of Science in Sustainable and Innovative Natural Resource Management. Students graduating from the programme are also awarded the EIT Label Certificate, demonstrating their innovation and entrepreneurship knowledge. SINReM is part of the International Training Centre of the Faculty of Bioscience Engineering of Ghent University and the EIT RawMaterials Academy.
1st year
During the first semester at Ghent University, students are taken through the value chain of raw materials, and are introduced to the sustainability challenges of the circular economy. Students learn to develop novel technologies to recover and extract precious metals and raw materials from waste streams and learn to create new technologies to mine materials in a sustainable way. Students take a 3-weeks course on the process chain of mineral resources at TU Freiberg in September.
During the second semester at Uppsala University, students are trained in georesource exploration and entrepreneurship, and are stimulated to excel in creativity with a entrepreneurial mindset and innovative problem-based technology development skills. All students move as a cohort between all three partner universities in the first year which has significant networking and social cohesion advantages.
During the first part of the summer, students follow the Resources Chemistry course at TU Freiberg. The course covers fundamentals in chemistry of ore deposits, kinetic aspects of precipitation and extraction, and chemical foundations of metallurgical processes. Students are made familiar with applications in hydro- and pyrometallurgical processing and recycling technologies.
2nd year
During the third semester, students choose a major consisting of mandatory and optional courses in a particular field of sustainable and innovative natural resource management. Student follow the major at one of the 3 partner universities.
During the summer holidays between the first and the second year, or at any other convenient period, students perform an internship related to their major. The internship is supervised by an academic staff member and a non-academic partner from the extensive SINReM network of research institutes, private companies and other institutions.
The SINReM programme is completed by a 30 ECTS credits master dissertation. The work is done during the fourth semester, although some students start already in the third semester.
Upon completion of the SINReM programme, the graduated students will...
- have a broad knowledge on the entire value chain and its different components, as well as on the environmental, technical, social and economic problems that may arise from waste emissions and a scarcity of raw materials, related to increasing urbanisation and population growth;
- have systematic and applied insights in techniques for qualitative and quantitative exploration and physicochemical characterisation of resources present in the environment, and in different physical and (bio)chemical processing technologies and industrial processes to extract resources from ores, solid, liquid and gaseous waste materials, generated throughout the value chain, and transform them into valuable products;
- be able to apply techniques to assess long-term sustainability and environmental impacts of novel and existing products and processes, and evaluate them against international standards;
- have insights in factors affecting the sustainable supply of raw materials and (technological) solutions for optimising material flows in the different parts of the value chain, and be able to compare them, taking technical and economic aspects as well as social and environmental impacts into account;
- be able to select, apply and develop innovative technologies for optimising material flows in the value chain, with a particular focus on resource exploration, sustainable extraction processes, sustainable materials use, and/or resource recovery from waste, taking the industrial process context into consideration;
- be able to identify new and remaining bottlenecks, knowledge gaps and research questions related to sustainable resource management along the entire value chain, based on knowledge, insights and experience, and to assess the importance and magnitude of a problem from different stakeholder perspectives and define strategies for intervention;
- be able to develop a research protocol based on the analysis of existing evidence, set up a research plan, consult specialist literature, collect, critically analyse and interpret data, present the findings, and discuss them in a multidisciplinary context;
- be able to use cutting-edge research methods, processes and techniques towards new venture creation and growth and to apply these also in cross-disciplinary teams and contexts;
- be able to transform practical experiences into research problems and challenges, and transform fundamental concepts or technologies from one domain or part of the value chain to another domain or part of the value chain (lateral & transversal thinking);
Careers
SINReM graduates are especially attractive for employers because the programme establishes very close, effective and clear links between education, research and innovation, i.e. the three sides of the knowledge triangle. This is reflected in the significant study time dedicated to innovation management and entrepreneurship skills and to project work aimed at stimulating creative and multidisciplinary thinking with active involvement of the non-academic partners in the student supervision.
On a global scale there is currently a wide variety of specialists and professionals available that act within the boundaries of their own domain. These specialists often lack the broader overview on alternative techniques available to make the entire value chain more sustainable and tackle specific supply risk challenges by looking at the issues from a value chain perspective within a multidisciplinary context. As a consequence, it is not always the most sustainable, effective, social, economic and/or environmentally-friendly solution that is designed and developed for the problems related to supply risk challenges of raw materials and reduction of waste emissions. SINReM deals with this issue by delivering graduates who will have learnt to develop sustainable solutions for supply risk challenges and environmental problems from an entire value chain perspective and within a multidisciplinary context.
Opportunity is About
Eligibility
Candidates should be from:
Description of Ideal Candidate
Academic requirements
SINReM is particularly suited for (but not limited to): bioscience engineers, biotechnology scientists, chemical engineers, chemists, environmental scientists and engineers, geologists, geophysicists, mining engineers, mineralogists, materials scientists, metallurgists and process engineers.
To be admitted to the SINReM programme, you need to:
- hold a Bachelor degree (equivalent to at 180 ECTS) in a discipline closely related to the SINReM scope (see above for examples);*
- have a strong background in science (equivalent to at least 15 ECTS in mathematics and/or physics and 10 ECTS in chemistry);*
- have completed your previous degree(s) with very good or excellent grades (typically top 30% of the students);
- submit a convincing motivation letter with your application, which shows that the SINReM scope matches your previous education and future goals;
- fulfil the English language requirements listed below.
* If you do not fully meet criteria 1 and 2, you may still be admitted if you have excellent grades (typically top 10% of the students) in your previous degree(s). Please note that in this case you will have to invest more time within the first year to catch up with fundamentals of science and engineering.
Academic admission (and Letter of Admission) is given by the SINReM Selection Committee, based upon the strength of the academic profile and motivation. The full application procedure needs to be completed in order to be granted admission.
All students participating in the SINReM programme will need to sign the Student Agreement prior to the start of the programme.
English Language requirements
Accepted English language test certificates (the certificate cannot be older than 5 years):
- TOEFL iBT (at least total score of 86 out of 120)
- TOEFL pBT (at least total score of 570)
- Academic IELTS (overall band score of at least 6.5 with at least 6 for writing)
- Cambridge Certificate of Advanced English (CAE)
Only nationals of all EU and EEA countries, Australia, Botswana, Cameroon, Canada, Eritrea, Gambia, Ghana, Guyana, India, Ireland, Jamaica, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Namibia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Uganda, UK, USA, Zambia and Zimbabwe are exempted to provide an English language test certificate as listed above and can provide a stamped and signed certificate of English proficiency issued by their previous university if they have obtained at least 60 ECTS credits with English as the language of instruction during a previous bachelor of master level higher education degree. This certificate should clearly state that English was the language of instruction during the previous degree.
Dates
Deadline: May 31, 2025
Cost/funding for participants
EIT AVSA scholarship
The EIT RawMaterials AVSA scholarship is a partial scholarship of 15,000 euro in total for the full 2-year programme.
Students starting SINReM in September 2025 receive the scholarship in allowances of 1,500 euro/month from March 2026 – December 2026 as support for housing, travel and general subsistence.
All nationalities can apply.
The programme participation cost has to be paid by the student and is not included in the scholarship.
Nationals of European Economic Area (EEA) countries and Switzerland receive a partial waiver for the programme participation cost down to 2,000 euro/year for both years.
The programme participation cost for nationals of other countries is 12,000 euro for the first year. They can apply for a partial programme participation cost waiver down to 4,000 euro for the second year in case all courses have been successfully passed during the first year.
Un-save Opportunity
Internships, scholarships, student conferences and competitions.
