AMIR – Master in Advanced Materials: Innovative Recycling

Are you a student who is:

• Interested in the full value chain of raw materials?
• Keen to make a difference in confronting the challenges surrounding waste and contributing to the development of sustainable solutions?
• Motivated to spend time working with top companies and research organizations in the recycling sector?
• Driven to become an entrepreneur or intrapreneur who makes innovation happen?

As an EIT-Labelled program, the AMIR master‘s integrates high-level training on entrepreneurship and innovation into its curriculum, giving students the skills they need to become game-changers in the recycling sector.

• During year 1, the Leading Innovation and Entrepreneurship module focuses on market/customer orientation and cooperation with stakeholders. You will learn to develop and apply customer/user-focused thinking as well as how to identify and cooperate with stakeholders. The objective is to train the entrepreneurs of tomorrow, able to create innovative projects, understand problems, detect needs and devise solutions.
• The University of Bordeaux works closely with the incubator ‘IRA’ and with the technology transfer organization ‘AST’. These are open to AMIR students and interact closely with the university’s laboratories, in which all AMIR students spend 8 weeks during internships.
• Industrial seminars allow AMIR students to learn directly from some of the most important industries in the sector. For example, the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission; ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel producer and one of the main actors in metal recycling; and Veolia.
• Industry internships give AMIR students up to six months of experience with an industrial or research partner, gaining extensive real-life experience in research or industry. Partners include ArcelorMittal, the CEA, CISC, CRM, Veolia, and Fraunhofer, ensuring that students gain the top-level experience necessary for success in finding employment or becoming entrepreneurs on completion of their studies.

Program Structure

Year 1 of the master’s program takes place at the University of Bordeaux, NOVA University Lisbon, or the University of Miskolc. Students learn about general and technical aspects of the raw materials value chain (general chemistry, material science, the lifecycle of materials), as well as about the main learning outcomes expected from an EIT-Labelled program: sustainability, intellectual transformation, value judgments (ethical, scientific and sustainability challenges), creativity, innovation, leadership, and entrepreneurship. In addition, a new module focusing on batteries has been introduced into the program at Bordeaux, in line with the key trend of electrification in the development of sustainable materials for future mobility.

Year 2 takes place at one of the other partner universities, allowing students to gain specialist knowledge in their area of interest. This is followed by an industrial internship and the completion of the master thesis.

The AMIR master‘s program focuses on the raw material value chain, with particular emphasis on recycling. The two main objectives of the program are:

• To educate students to become highly-skilled European professionals with expertise in various types of materials. This expertise will enable them to develop, on a large and ambitious scale, new methods for materials recycling. In addition, the AMIR program includes classes on transversal skills such as innovation, ethics, intellectual property, life cycle assessment, sustainability, and advanced research strategies.
• To develop a deep entrepreneurship mindset among students with the help and expertise of associated businesses, incubators, and innovation services as well as a large panel of industries.

AMIR students benefit from a high-level education and research environment including access to advanced research laboratories. High-quality internships, together with mandatory international and intersectoral mobility, ensure that students gain the practical experience and skills necessary to make a difference as recycling professionals. The curriculum of AMIR was designed with the strategic goal of producing T-shaped professionals and entrepreneurs for the raw materials sector with:

• Solid knowledge of the properties and processing of various types of materials (metals, minerals, ceramics, polymers), based on multidisciplinary training by physicists, chemists, process engineers, and others.
• In-depth proficiency in recycling, material chain optimization for end-of-life products, and design of products and services for the circular economy.
• An entrepreneurial mindset, formed with the help and expertise of partners from the industry as well as Research and Technology Organisations (RTOs) and associated businesses and incubators.
• Essential transferable skills for researchers such as intellectual property, research ethics, and scientific communication.

Application deadline:

• The Erasmus Mundus application Master Programme 2024-2026 - dedicated only to candidates from the European Commission Western Balkans Region (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro only) From 18 December 2023 01:00 To 19 February 2024 00:59
• The application deadline for Europeand nad non-European candidates is March 8th.

Graduates of the AMIR program will be fully equipped to take on professional roles in the recycling sector:

• Process optimization
• Materials design
• Plant administration
• Project administration

Furthermore, the skills gained are widely required across sectors, including information and communication technologies, building construction, energy, machinery tools, and mobility. Graduates also obtain the necessary skills and knowledge to set up their own company or work in sales and marketing. Finally, doctoral studies are another possibility, and graduates of the AMIR program will be fully equipped to enter Ph.D. programs in the recycling sector to pursue engineering careers or academic research.