• Students in their senior years and recent graduates of professional and technical careers from universities and institutes may submit their proposals until July 24.
• The GIZ MinSus Project joins the program as a partner, extending the call for proposals to young people from Andean countries such as Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.

PERUMIN Hub, the main open and collaborative innovation program of the mining industry, promoted thanks to an alliance between the Peruvian Institute of Mining Engineers (IIMP) and the Mining Innovation Hub of Peru, announced the call for the competition stage for its new line of work "Young People who Bring About Transformation", which aims to promote the development of ideas and creativity among future professionals in the mining sector.

PERUMIN Hub establishes three thematic areas that in turn include fundamental challenges for the development of the mining industry: 1) Environment and Sustainability, 2) Shared Value and 3) Mining 4.0. In this new line, young people will have the opportunity to propose innovative solutions for each of these.

The call, open until July 24, is aimed at students in their final years and recent graduates of professional and technical careers from universities and technical institutes throughout the country. In this way, it seeks to actively include young people in the PERUMIN Hub Community of Innovators, providing them with an immersive program in innovation that allows them to build on disruptive and multidisciplinary ideas to face the main challenges of the mining industry. Registration and applications can be made through the official PERUMIN 36 website.

"The new line of work of PERUMIN Hub's Young People who Bring About Transformation allows us to go one step further and work with young people who, through their ideas, will be the ones who in a few years will shape the future of the mining sector," said the general manager of the Mining Innovation Hub of Peru, Pamela Antonioli, who also noted that to date 43 workshops have been held nationwide to disseminate this initiative and apply for the challenges, which have brought together more than 3,000 participants, with 18 mining companies involved. 

Due to the scope of the program, the Regional Cooperation Project for the Sustainable Management of Mining Resources in the Andean Countries (MinSus) has joined as an ally, making it possible to extend the call to the Andean countries of the region.

"PERUMIN Hub has more than 70 national and international allies, with whom it shares the innovative spirit of promoting more intelligent, sustainable, and environmentally friendly mining. The alliance with MinSus of Germany will allow us to reach young people in the region in countries such as Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, and Ecuador, promoting the exchange of ideas and expanding the contact network of young people who will benefit from an immersive innovation program to design and conceptually validate their innovative ideas," said the president of PERUMIN Hub and member of the PERUMIN 36 Organizing Committee, Rafael Estrada.

"We join the Young People who Bring About Transformation program with great expectation, confident that we will generate synergies with PERUMIN Hub, a program that has been very successful in promoting open innovation in Peruvian mining. For our part, we add our work experience promoting innovation with partners in the Andean region, confident that this joint effort will result in the strengthening of young talents and their approach to the mining sector from their innovative ideas for environmental and social sustainability of the sector," said Nicolas Maennling, Senior Advisor of the GIZ MinSus Project.

It is worth noting that PERUMIN Hub has allowed the establishment of a community that involves innovators and companies, generating opportunities for the design of proposals that meet the demands of this industry. "Young People who Bring About Transformation" is added to the category "Innovations that take off", which this year has received 100 applications of innovations to be validated in the field or recently validated. The outstanding proposals in both categories will have the opportunity to be exhibited at PERUMIN 36 Mining Convention, from September 25 to 29 in Arequipa, where the finalists and winners of both lines of work will also be announced. 

About MinSus

The Regional Cooperation Project for the Sustainable Management of Mining Resources in the Andean Countries (MinSus) promotes responsible mining practices in the Andean region and is implemented by the German Cooperation Agency (GIZ).

Through its work areas, and specifically Innovation and new technologies, MinSus offers a platform for the various public and private actors in the Andean region to exchange strategies, promoting public-private cooperation projects and supporting innovation and entrepreneurship of students addressing sustainability challenges in the sector.