Eramet Ideas is launching its 4th Open Innovation Challenge dedicated to safety at work. The idea? To source companies that can provide innovative solutions and contribute to achieving our goal of zero accidents.
Frédéric Camuset
Group safety and prevention Director
Safety at work in a mining and metallurgical group like Eramet is a daily challenge. The Eramet safety first innovation challenge will enable us to identify new solutions that meet our safety challenges, such as the management of isolated workers, machine consignment, protection of local residents on railway lines, risk and permit management, evacuation-rescue in a confined space and the stability of heavy machinery. This Challenge will bring together innovative companies and the winner will be able to implement its solution on one of our sites and make it a pilot for the Group.
For the last four years, Eramet Ideas has been organizing its international challenge, and for the third year in a row, the company is partnering with EIT RawMaterials, a European initiative to support innovation. After Eramet Real-time Monitoring Challenge 2020 and Eramet Responsible Mining Innovation Challenge, the Group’s R&D center is focusing this year on workplace safety, the number one priority of Eramet’s CSR roadmap.
This topic will be broken down into four areas:
- Safety of isolated workers in exploration
- Risk detection and prevention systems
- Man-machine interaction in mining and metallurgy
- Transport and logistics in the mining industry
50 000 € to develop the solutions
Aimed at start-ups and SMEs from all over the world, on condition that they propose solutions with an advanced technological maturity (level 5 minimum on the technology readiness level scale), this innovation challenge will award the sum of 50 000 € to the winner for the creation of a POC (proof of concept) in order to test the solution in the field and possibly deploy it on a larger scale on the Group’s various sites.
Five steps to choose the winner
Candidates have from the 23rd of May to the 1st of September 2022 to submit their applications. A pre-selection of 20 start-ups and SMEs will then take place, at the end of which 10 candidates will be selected by the jury – chaired this year by Frédéric Camuset, Eramet’s Safety and Prevention Director.
After an in-depth presentation of the solutions during personalized interviews, three candidates will be selected and presented to the Group’s Executive Committee, which will be responsible for selecting the lucky winner.
They continue to work with Eramet after the challenge
Bérengère Papin was part of the team that coached Guaranteed, a metal 3D printing start-up, last year. Guaranteed finished as a finalist in the Eramet Responsible Mining Innovation Challenge. Although it did not win the challenge, the start-up continues to work actively with the Group.
“For my part, I took part in coaching the Guaranteed team, a metal 3D printing start-up. I am specialized in digital and I have been working on these issues of implementing 3D printing in Eramet’s operations for several years. Concerning the testing of the solution proposed by Guaranteed, we have continued the qualification of test cases, and the first two parts will be printed for SLN: a pinion and a mill rotor. The gains are currently being estimated but are expected to be quite significant and more important than the cost of printing.“
