RELiEF progress meeting in Lisbon, Portugal

On the 29th and 30th of June, the RELiEF consortium met in Lisbon, Portugal for the first RELiEF General Assembly. This was the opportunity to meet again with the partners of this exciting project, which aims to recover lithium from potential secondary sources in order to reduce the amount of unrecovered lithium in the waste stream.

The meeting was hosted by partner NOVA, whose work is mainly focused on developing a process technology to effectively leach two different secondary solid input streams and consequently develop a new process to recover the lithium from the leachates obtained.

The general meeting started with a warm welcome from Jose Alferes, Director of the NOVA School of Science and Technology, followed by our hosts Alexandra Ribeiro and Joana R. Almeida (NOVA) and our coordinator Gabriel Hildago. After a short update on the progress of the first year, the consortium had the opportunity to visit the NOVA labs and get an insight into the daily work of the NOVA team.

After a short icebreaker, the afternoon session focused on several interactive workshops on stakeholder mapping analysis, exploitation activities, communication and dissemination. The results of these workshops will be of great help not only for the new business model that will pave the way for the commercialisation of a new cathode material and the up-scaling of the demonstrated processes, but also for the assessment of the social impact of such a new model through a new visibility to the targeted stakeholders and the scientific community.

After a short sightseeing tour in Lisbon, discussions continued over dinner on the beach, offering traditional and modern Portuguese cuisine. On the second day, the meeting focused on (re-)addressing key issues to be discussed with the consortium.

Participants left inspired and motivated and are now looking forward to the next face-to-face meeting in June 2024!