Looking back at 2025
In 2025, members of the Resource Efficiency Collective published exciting research, built dashboards, travelled to conferences and workshops, to name but a few accomplishments! We have also welcomed new and returning members to the group: Gretel Cuevas (Research Assistant), Benjamin Adams (Software Engineer), Chris Toavs (PhD student) and Enar Leferink (PhD student).
Below are a few of our highlights.
The year kicked off with Luke, Sam and Jonathan travelling to Malawi for a scoping mission with the Climate Compatible Growth programme in January. The aim of the trip was to meet and get to know key actors in government ministries, academia, and civil society across areas relevant to our research while identifying potential academic partners for future collaborations. Read Sam’s blog about the trip here.
In March, Mehrnoosh, Gretel and Laura headed to Zambia for the 4th Zambia Climate Compatible Growth Network Annual Workshop. Gretel then joined the CCG Zambia team on a trip to the Copperbelt region. You can read more about Gretel’s trip, which included meeting various stakeholders to set up a special interest group, and visiting an artisanal copper mine, here.
In July, Jonathan, Ella, Grace, Mehrnoosh, Philip and Sam headed to Singapore for the International Society of Industrial Ecology’s 2025 conference, hosted by the National University of Singapore. Mehrnoosh’s poster, “Critical Minerals: Critical for Whom?”, explored the governance, resilience, and stakeholders’ dimensions of critical mineral supply chains. Read more here.
In September, Jonathan, André Serrenho and the Climate Compatible Growth team hosted a Critical Minerals Research Showcase in the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge. The showcase entailed presentations about the latest research to do with Critical Minerals, including Baptiste’s presentation Ten Years On – Are Raw Material Criticality Assessments Making More Sense?, where he discussed Criticality Assessment in the context of risk theory. Read more about the showcase here.
Here is a selection of the research papers the Resource Efficiency Collective published this year. Click the links to read the full publication!
- A systematic review of resilience in the critical minerals supply chains, needed for the low-carbon energy transition
- The Impact of Mine Ownership on Trade of Metal Ores
- Barriers, enablers, and opportunities for scaling-up innovative and circular domestic retrofit business models in the UK
- Country’s wealth is not associated with domestic control of metal ore extraction
- End-of-Life Management for Wind Turbines
We have also had opportunity to spend some time together as a group this year, taking a step away from our usual research rhythms. In September we took a day trip to the Norfolk coast. Despite a mishap with car hire, blue skies, a coastal walk and good company made for a great day!
In early December, we finished the year with a joint Christmas gathering with André Serrenho’s research group and the Use Less Group.
Here’s to a productive and meaningful 2026!
Photo credits: Mehrnoosh Heydari, Gretel Cuevas.
