Refª Gaiva 604_2013

Early Stage Researcher (PhD positions) and Experienced Researcher Fellowships (postdoctoral positions) in the Marie Curie Initial Training Network “EREAN – European Rare Earth Magnet Recycling Network” Applications are invited for 12 Early Stage Researcher (ESR) and 2 Experienced Researchers (ER) to be funded by the Marie Curie Initial Training Network “EREAN- European Rare Earth Magnet Recycling Network” of the 7th Framework Programme of the European Commission. EREAN is a consortium of high profile universities, research institutions and companies located in Belgium, Finland, Sweden, The Netherlands, UK, Germany and France.

Number of positions available : 14 (12 PhD positions and 2 junior Postdocs) Research Fields Chemistry - Inorganic chemistry - Engineering - Materials Engineering – Metallurgy - Physics Keywords rare earths, rare-earth elements, lanthanides, neodymium magnets, recycling, solvent extraction, hydrometallurgy, pyrometallurgy, electrodeposition, molten salts, ionic liquids, f-block elements Career Stage Early Stage Researcher (ESR) or 0-4 yrs (Post Graduate) Experienced Researcher (ER) or 4-10 yrs (Junior Post-Doc) Benefits The Marie Curie programme offers highly competitive and attractive salary and working conditions.

Benefits include mobility allowance, career development allowance and a travel allowance. The successful candidates will receive a salary in accordance with the Marie Curie regulations for early stage and experienced researchers. Exact salary will be confirmed upon appointment. In addition to their individual scientific projects, all fellows will benefit from further continuing education, which includes internships and secondments, a variety of training modules as well as transferable skills courses and active participation in workshops and conferences.

Recruitment Procedure Candidates apply for one or more positions (and indicate their preference). Candidates send their cv and a motivation letter to Koen.Binnemans@chem.kuleuven.be, peter.jones@mtm.kuleuven.be and the involved Supervisor (see below). Furthermore, applicants should submit a form in which it is corroborated that they are eligible for MC ITN funding (cf. diploma, mobility aspect, English language skills – see below for more details). The deadline for these documents is 28 June 2013. The EREAN Recruitment Committee selects the 30 best candidates for the Recruitment Event which will take place in Leuven (September 2013). The final decision on who to recruit will be made the day after the Recruitment Event. The selected ESRs and ERs are to start as quickly as possible (in practice: target 1 November 2013).

Comment/web site for additional job details The following positions are currently available:

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Vacancies for Marie-Curie Initial Training Network Project “EREAN”

Early Stage Researchers ESR 1: Research Topic: Hydrogen decrepitation of rare-earth magnets Objectives: To develop pre-processing routes to extract rare-earth magnets from complex, multimaterial End-of-Life waste materials.

Host institution: University of Birmingham (http://www.birmingham.ac.uk) Supervisor: Dr. Allan Walton (a.walton@bham.ac.uk), Dr. Neil Rowson Duration: 36 months Planned secondments: Solvay Rhodia (2 months), Stena Metall (1 month) ESR 2: Research Topic: Production of sintered NdFeB magnets from scrap alloy powders Objectives: To prepare sintered NdFeB magnets from recycled materials Host institution: University of Birmingham (http://www.birmingham.ac.uk) Supervisor: Dr. Allan Walton (a.walton@bham.ac.uk), Dr. Neil Rowson Duration: 36 months Planned secondments: Oeko (2 months), Magneti Ljubljani (2 months) ESR 3: Research Topic: LCA of rare-earths magnets Objectives: To perform a life cycle assessment (LCA) of urban-mine-to-magnet production Host institution: Oeko Institute (in cooperation with TU Darmstadt) (http://www.oeko.de) Supervisor: Dr. Matthias Buchert (M.Buchert@oeko.de) Duration: 36 months Planned secondments: University of Birmingham (2 months), Solvay Rhodia (1 month) ESR 4: Research Topic: Roasting and selective leaching of magnets Objectives: To develop efficient routes to separate rare earths in magnets from other elements (exogens) using roasting including reactive ball milling and selective leaching.

Host institution: KU Leuven (http://kuleuven.rare3.eu/) Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Bart Blanpain (Bart.Blanpain@mtm.kuleuven.be), Prof. Dr. Tom Van Gerven Duration: 36 months Planned secondments: Solvay Rhodia (2 months), University of Birmingham (2 months), InsPyro (1 month) ESR 5: Research Topic: Anodic dissolution of rare earths in the permanent magnets Objectives: To selectively dissolve Nd and other REEs (Pr, Dy and Tb) using anodic dissolution Host institution: TU Delft (http://www.tudelft.nl/ Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Yongxiang Yang (y.yang@tudelft.nl) Duration: 36 months (TU Delft offers a 4 year contract) Planned secondments: Stena Metall (1 month), Umicore (1 month)

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Vacancies for Marie-Curie Initial Training Network Project “EREAN�

ESR 6: Research Topic: Separation of rare earths by inorganic ion exchangers Objectives: To develop new inorganic ion exchangers, based on layered and 3D metal phosphates (MePO) (e.g. zirconium phosphate ZrPO) for Pr/Nd and Tb/Dy separations, which are relevant for the recycling of rare earths from magnets.

Host institution: University of Helsinki (http://www.helsinki.fi/university/) Supervisor: Dr. Risto Harjula (risto.harjula@helsinki.fi) Duration: 36 months Planned secondments: Umicore (1 month), Chalmers (3 months) ESR 7: Research Topic: Separation of rare earths by ionic liquid technology Objectives: To design an environmentally friendly IL based extraction process for separation of REEs Host institution: KU Leuven (http://kuleuven.rare3.eu/) Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Koen Binnemans (Koen.Binnemans@chem.kuleuven.be) Duration: 36 months Planned secondments: Chalmers (3 months), Treibacher Industrie AG (1 month) ESR 8: Research Topic: Development and optimisation of separation processes for heavy rare earths Objectives: Development of extractants for solvent extraction separation of heavy rare earths from magnet leachates & Development and assessment of new environmentally friendly extractants for REE separation prepared according to the CHNO principle Host institution: Chalmers University of Technology (http://www.chalmers.se/en/) Supervisor: Prof. Christian Ekberg, Prof. Britt-Marie Steenari (bms@chalmers.se) Duration: 36 months Planned secondments: UHelsinki (3 months) , MEAB Aachen (1 month) ESR 9: Research Topic: Development and optimisation of the organic phase in separation of heavy rare earths Objectives: Optimisation of the organic phase for REE separation processes, including the optimisation of the extraction kinetics by thorough characterisation of the interface between the aqueous and the organic phase Host institution: Chalmers University of Technology (http://www.chalmers.se/en/) Supervisor: Prof. Christian Ekberg, Prof. Britt-Marie Steenari (bms@chalmers.se) Duration: 36 months Planned secondments: UHelsinki (3 months), MEAB Aachen (1 month) ESR 10: Research Topic: Electrochemical reduction of REO and REO mixtures in molten salts Objectives: To develop new methods for the direct reduction of rare-earth oxides into rare-earth metals.

Host institution: TU Delft (http://www.tudelft.nl/) Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Yongxiang Yang (y.yang@tudelft.nl) Duration: 36 months (TU Delft offers a 4 year contract) Planned secondments: Less Common Metals and UOB (1 month), KU Leuven (1 month), Umicore (1 month)

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Vacancies for Marie-Curie Initial Training Network Project “EREAN�

ESR 11: Research Topic: Dynamic hydrogenation disproportionation desorption recombination of the extracted powders to produce bonded magnets Objectives: Producing resin bonded magnets from the recovered Nd2Fe14B alloy powder Host institution: Fraunhofer IWKS (in cooperation with TU Darmstadt) (http://www.iwks.fraunhofer.de/) Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Oliver Gutfleisch (gutfleisch@fm.tu-darmstadt.de) Duration: 36 months Planned secondments: Oeko (1 month), Stena Metall (1 month) ESR12: Research Topic: Physical metallurgy of rare earth magnet alloys Objectives: Multi-scale characterisation protocol and data evaluation for the various kinds of powder materials and magnets produced in the project Host institution: Fraunhofer IWKS (in cooperation with TU Darmstadt) (http://www.iwks.fraunhofer.de/) Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Oliver Gutfleisch, Dr. Roland Gauss (roland.gauss@isc.fraunhofer.de) Duration: 36 months Planned secondments: KU Leuven (1 month), InsPyro (1 month), Magneti Ljubljani (2 months) Experienced Researchers: ER 1: Research Topic: Exogens removal prior or combined to leaching Objectives: Purification of the REE recycled stream Host institution: Solvay Rhodia (www.rhodia.com/en/) Supervisor: Dr. Laure Bisson (Laure.Bisson@eu.rhodia.com) Duration: 24 months Planned secondments: University of Birmingham (2 months), TU Delft (2 months) ER 3: Research Topic: Separation of rare-earth ions by strong magnetic fields Objectives: To develop microfluidic flow cell devices for the separation of rare-earth ions in a magnetic field Host institution: KU Leuven (http://kuleuven.rare3.eu/) Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Koen Binnemans (Koen.Binnemans@chem.kuleuven.be), Prof. Dr. Jan Fransaer Duration: 24 months Planned secondments: Fraunhofer (1 month), Treibacher Industrie AG (1 month), Less Common Metals and UOB (1 month) Further information: Early-stage researchers (ESR) are those who are, at the time of selection by the host institution, in the first four years (full-time equivalent) of their research careers. This is measured from the date when they obtained the degree which formally entitles them to embark on a doctorate, either in the country in which the degree was obtained or in the country in which the research training is provided, irrespective of whether or not a doctorate was envisaged.

Experienced Researchers (ER) are defined as researchers who, at the time of recruitment by the beneficiary, are: 1) in possession of a doctoral degree, independently of the time taken to acquire it, or have at least four years of full-time equivalent research experience, and 2) have less than five years of full-time equivalent research experience.

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Vacancies for Marie-Curie Initial Training Network Project “EREAN�

Conditions of international mobility of researchers: Researchers are required to undertake transnational mobility (i.e. move from one country to another) when taking up the appointment. At the time of selection by the host organisation, researchers must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of their host organisation for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to their recruitment. Short stays, such as holidays, are not taken into account.

English language: It is a requirement that network fellows will show that their ability to understand and express themselves in both written and spoken English is sufficiently high for them to derive the full benefit from the network training.

See for instance: http://www.helsinki.fi/facultyofscience/postgraduate/postapplicant.html).

Public Abstract EREAN: The aim of EREAN is to train 15 young researchers (12 ESR+ 3 ER*) in the science and technology of rare earths, with emphasis on the recycling of these elements from permanent magnets. In doing so, EREAN addresses the most Critical Raw Materials for the EU. Europe is largely dependent on import of rare earths from China. Because China dominates the rareearth market and has recently reduced its export quota, there is a high supply risk for rare earths in Europe. Therefore, recycling of rare earths will become a necessity. To date, less than 1% of the rare earths are being recycled, due to the nonexistence of efficient recycling technologies for these metals and the lack of incentives. The creation of a rare-earth recycling industry in Europe requires skilled chemists and engineers, who can tackle the barriers to develop fully closed-loop recycling flow sheets, an intensive collaboration between the private sector and academia, and an interdisciplinary approach. The full materials loop from urban mine to magnet is covered. Research challenges include the development of efficient extraction of rare-earth-containing materials from electronic waste scrap, removal of exogen elements (Fe, Ni, B) by pyro- and hydrometallurgical methods to produce a concentrate of rare earths, new separation methods, direct electrochemical reduction of rare-earth oxides into metals, and the preparation of new magnets. By training the researchers in basic and applied rare-earth sciences, with emphasis on extraction and separation methods and rare-earth metallurgy, in sustainable materials management, recycling methods, life cycle assessment (LCA), and the principles of urban mining, they will be excellent candidates for future employment in the growing newly-established European rare-earth industry. Concurrently, they are receiving a multitude of soft skill trainings, increasing their future employability chances in the materials recycling and metallurgical industries. (*The third ER will be recruited in the second year of the project.)

Level 1 Partners: KU Leuven, Helsinki University, Chalmers University, TU Delft, University of Birmingham, Oeko, Fraunhofer IWKS, Umicore, Solvay Rhodia Level 2 Partners: InsPyro, MEAB, Treibacher, Less Common Metals, Stena Metal, Magneti Ljubljani Prof. Koen Binnemans Departement Chemie, KU Leuven Celestijnenlaan 200f - bus 2404, B-3001 Leuven tel. +32 16 32 74 46 e-mail: koen.binnemans@chem.kuleuven.be Website: http://kuleuven.rare3.eu/ Dr. Ir. Peter Tom Jones Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering (MTM), KU Leuven Kasteelpark Arenberg 44 - bus 02450, B-3001 Leuven tel: + 32 486 83 64 94 fax: + 32 16 32 19 91 e-mail: peter.jones@mtm.kuleuven.be Website: http://kuleuven.rare3.eu/

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Vacancies for Marie-Curie Initial Training Network Project “EREAN�