<p>Dr Massimo Gasparon is the Director of the European Raw Materials Alliance (ERMA). The scope of ERMA is to identify the sector’s challenges through an open consultation process and to support SMEs as well as large industries with the establishment of large scale projects and infrastructures that address the current and future needs of the EU’s industrial ecosystems. Before becoming the Director of ERMA in February 2021, he was the Innovation Director at EIT RawMaterials, the largest consortium in the raw materials sector worldwide, initiated and funded by the EIT (European Institute of Innovation and Technology), a body of the European Union. His responsibilities included the overall coordination and management of EIT RawMaterials’ funding program and International Outreach strategy. He holds a PhD in geochemistry from the University of Tasmania, and prior to joining EIT RawMaterials in 2017 he was a professor and geochemistry laboratory manager in the School of Earth Sciences at The University of Queensland. Between 1995 and 2013 he coordinated several programs aimed at establishing human impacts at research stations in the Australian Antarctic Territory, including the management of the Airllink program (direct flight connection between Australia and Antarctica). The main goal of his recent research has been to provide the geochemical tools for the assessment of risk to the environment and to human health, particularly at mine sites, following exposure to air, water and soil contaminated with metals and metalloids, particularly arsenic. He is the co-author of over 100 scientific publications, a Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and a Special Visiting Researcher at the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil. In 2006 he won a Carrick Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning, and received a UQ Award for Teaching Excellence in 2011. He was the Chair of the School’s Teaching and Learning Committee from 1997 to 2012, and coordinated the most awarded Earth sciences undergraduate curriculum across Australian universities.</p>