Rauno Sairinen works as a professor of environmental policy and as a director of the RESOURCE rc (Sustainable Resource Society: Circular Economy, Energy and Raw Materials) at the University of Eastern Finland. During 2017-19 Rauno was member of the Board of Directors at the Geological Survey of Finland (GTK).
His recent research themes have concerned sustainability of mining, geopolitics of critical minerals, development of battery industry in Finland, green energy transition, social impact assessment, and EU’s environmental policy. Rauno has wide experience in creating and coordinating research projects and in leading multidisciplinary research groups.
His recent projects include: PHOENIX: Energy Solutions as Part of Just Green Transition (2023-26, WP lead / geopolitics of critical minerals, land use policies for wind and solar fields); GOVERMAT: Multi-level governance of critical materials for future electric mobility (2022-25, WP lead / battery industry in Finland); IMP@CT: Integrated Mobile Modularised Plant and Containerised Tools for sustainable, selective, low-impact mining of small, high-grade or complex deposits (Horizon2020, WP lead, 2016-20 / small-scale mining in Europe); CORE: Collaborative remedies for fragmented societies – facilitating the collaborative turn in environmental decision-making (WP lead, 2017-21/ collaborative mineral governance).