CIRAN WP5 successfully concludes community engagement across Europe

As CIRAN’s trajectory is coming to a close, June 2025 marked an important date on the project’s trajectory. After nearly three years of dedicated work, WP5 has successfully concluded CIRAN’s community engagement activities across Europe.

Throughout these two and a half years, the CIRAN project has brought together 173 citizens from six European regions to discuss Critical Raw Materials (CRMs) and the future of sustainable resource management. These activities took place in diverse community settings: in Baiso, Italy; Veselí nad Moravou, Czech Republic; the Mid East Region of Ireland; Rimavská Sobota, Slovakia; Idanha-a-Nova, Portugal; and Lens, France. As part of the methodology designed within WP5 and in collaboration with CIRAN Consortium partners, each location hosted one focus group and one public dialogue, with the exception of the Portuguese community, which hosted an additional public dialogue dedicated to the student public, and France which hosted an experts’ focus group. The participants represented a broad spectrum of stakeholders, including students, representatives of public authorities, NGOs representatives, and unaffiliated citizens. The gender identity distribution was almost balanced, with a 57% of the total attendees identifying as men.

Public narratives, similarities, and contrasted options across European communities

A number of key themes emerged consistently across countries. There was a strong demand for education and transparency, as many participants initially lacked clear understanding of what CRMs are and their significance in daily life, which fueled calls for early and accessible information and awareness raising campaigns to foster informed public opinion. Alongside this, mistrust toward mining companies and governance structures was widespread, with concerns about corruption, weak enforcement of regulatory norms, and a history of broken promises. Participants emphasized the need for genuine public involvement and ethical oversight to rebuild trust.

During deliberation sessions, participants worked together to identify common ground and vote on key statements. The consensus reinforced support for a circular economy, strict environmental safeguards, and ethical mining standards. There was also a strong agreement that mining in protected areas should be avoided unless absolutely necessary and subject to rigorous environmental and social control and transparency mechanisms.

A clear community-led vision of the future

The insights gathered from across CIRAN WP5 public engagement activities provided a clear vision for the future: one where environmental protection, transparency, and community participation guide the management of Europe’s Critical Raw Materials.

These findings will help shape future strategies and policy recommendations to the European and national decisionmaking spheres, highlighting the crucial need for local voices to remain central to sustainable resource governance. The results of these activities, which will inform Work Package 6 (WP6) and contribute to the development of policy recommendations.

Soon, WP5 findings will be publicly available on the CIRAN website and communication channels via the detailed report of activities in Deliverable 5.2.

Overall, the WP5 approach and series of public events were received with enormous support and active participation, reflected in the final WP5 figures:

• 173 citizens
• 6 local communities from different European countries
• 12 community events
• +12 social media channels used for dissemination, involving Facebook, Instagram, X, and LinkedIn communication

CIRAN warmly extends its sincere thanks to all participants, local collaborators, facilitators, external and Consortium partners for their valuable contributions and active engagement throughout the development of WP5 events.

For more information about the CIRAN project and to stay updated on our progress, please visit our Project & Results pages and Subscribe to our Newsletter.

• First Focus Group held in the Czech Republic
• Focus Group in Baiso, Italy

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