How we secure, process, design and use materials is fast becoming a defining issue of our time. Based in the Centre for the Public Awareness of Science (CPAS), the Materials, Systems and Society Hub (MASSH) at ANU is dedicated to building the interdisciplinary research, education and wider societal and policy engagement we urgently need to tackle this question. 

For years, we have known about the social and environmental impacts of extracting and burning fossil fuel materials. But today, metals and other minerals – whose provenance and use value have long been taken for granted in wider society - are re-entering the public spotlight. This renewed attention is driven not only by climate change, but also by geopolitical tensions, economic restructuring, and growing concerns about justice and equity.

Take for example, the humble case of copper. Humans have mined copper for thousands of years for a wide variety of needs. It is the best conductor of electricity and remains essential to everyday life. As countries embark on energy transitions and seek to electrify their energy infrastructures, demand for copper is projected to grow by around 70%. Meeting this demand, however, comes at a cost. Expanding copper extraction places new pressures on land, water, biodiversity, and communities – often in regions already facing environmental and climate stress and social disadvantages. These pressures raise difficult questions about who bears the risk and benefit of extraction and beneficiation of materials, and how decisions about future materials are made.

Copper is just one case. Similar dynamics are unfolding around many other materials that underpin modern life. Emerging technologies such as renewable energy systems, electric vehicles, digital infrastructures, and artificial intelligence all rely on large volumes of material resources. While these technologies are often framed as solutions to climate and sustainability challenges, they also create new forms of demand, waste, vulnerability, and inequality that are not yet well understood. 

Addressing these challenges requires more than technical fixes. It calls for rethinking the entire material system – from how we understand and value the earth, to how materials are extracted and processed, to how these materials are used, designed, reused and eventually disposed of. It also requires asking harder questions about sufficiency, responsibility, and ethical economic development, rather than assuming endless material use. 

This is a massive task. It can only be properly addressed by bringing different forms of imagination, knowledge, and expertise together, and by learning how to create the kinds of innovations that transform material futures in equitable ways.

Research projects

The MASSH Hub at CPAS is contributing to this effort through research, education and engagement that connect materials to social life, science experts, public values, and policy choices. The Hub is currently working on 3 research projects funded by the Rio Tinto Centre for Future Materials and 1 research project in collaboration with the University of Indonesia (funded by the Open Society Foundation).

Integration of the social, environmental, and technical

This project is led by Prof Sujatha Raman of CPAS in collaboration with Prof Martin Dallimer at Imperial College London and Prof Caitlyn Byrt’s biomining lab at ANU. This research project focuses on improving integration of trans-diciplinary sciences and approaches across the material systems, from mining to recycling. (MASSH members involved: Dr Karina Judd, Prof Sujatha Raman, Dr Dan Santos, and Dr Rini Astuti)

First Nations engagement

Led by Prof Peter Yu and Prof Nick Bainton, MASSH members, Prof Sujatha Raman and Dr Rini Astuti contribute as co-principal investigators in this project that centers indigenous justice and economic sovereignty in the material systems. (MASSH members involved: Dr Karina Judd, Prof Sujatha Raman, and Dr Rini Astuti)

Knowledge mapping on compound exposure from mining and climate change

MASSH member, Dr Rini Astuti, contributes as a co-principal investigator in a project led by Prof Nick Bainton of ANU-Regnet that maps the social evidence of compounding effects of critical mineral mining and climate change. (MASSH members involved: Dr Faranak Hardcastle, Dr Rini Astuti).

Reimagining nickel circularity

Led by Dr Rini Astuti in collaboration with the Asia Research Centre at Universitas Indonesia, this research focuses on how we can reimagine the way we govern, reduce and live with the impacts of nickel mining waste. (MASSH members involved: Dr Rini Astuti, Prof Sujatha Raman).

MASSH draws from CPAS’ global leadership in science communication, developing novel pathways to integrate geography, engineering, physics, geology, biology and other disciplines in community and policy engagements. This is critical as the future of sustainable material systems depends on successfully recognising and tackling questions which cross boundaries. E.g., - Who has the right to benefit from material extraction and processing? How do different actors value materials in different ways? And how can these perspectives be brought into conversation and integrated rather than treated as obstacles? What impacts will new technologies have on material demand, and how can they be developed in ways that respond to community priorities? How can material systems be designed to reduce overall use, rather than simply shifting impacts elsewhere?