“Science for science is beautiful — but science for impact is even better.”
That’s the mindset driving Coline Perrin, Head of the Energy & Environment team at PNO Italy, and Work Package Leader in the DINAMINE project.
With a background in engineering and innovation management, Coline works closely with the scientific community to translate R&D ideas into real-world solutions—focusing on decarbonising Europe’s most polluting sectors and helping meet EU climate goals.
In DINAMINE, Coline leads a work package that brings research to impact by:
– Maximising the visibility and reach of the project through strategic communication, dissemination, and stakeholder engagement
– Driving market-oriented exploitation by analysing trends, identifying key needs, and supporting partners in bringing innovations—like ISM-PM and the semi-autonomous jumbo drill—to market
“DINAMINE is more than a project—it’s a mission to empower Europe’s extractive sector, especially SMEs, with digital solutions that deliver real environmental and economic impact.”
According to Coline, the future of mining is digital, data-driven, and sustainable—and DINAMINE is helping shape it.
Discover more by reading her interview!
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Tell us about yourself
My name is Coline Perrin, I am responsible for the Energy & Environment team at PNO Italy. I have a background in engineering and innovation management, which helps me work hand in hand with the scientific community to bring to life their R&D ideas in the field of energy and industry, aiming particularly at decarbonizing the most polluting sectors, safeguarding our planet, and meeting Europe’s climate and energy objectives. In PNO I am in charge of supporting projects and project promoters in maximising the impact of their research and development results, for them, for the industry, and for society as a whole. This is done through supporting the writing of winning applications to public funding (Horizon Europe, Connecting Europe Facility, Innovation Fund…), and specifically in Horizon projects, through efficient communication and dissemination activities, as well as exploitation of the project’s results
What inspires you about working in the DINAMINE project? Tell us about your role as a Work Package leader.
The DINAMINE project aims at developing breakthrough innovations in a key sector for Europe’s autonomy and resilience. The extractive sector is critical for several manufacturing industries, as well as for the energy transition. Diamine promotes Europe’s leadership, focusing on small medium companies, which according to our market analysis, make up most of the company profiles in the extractive sector on the continent. As such, DINAMINE is a particularly exciting project, which brings together experts internationally, working together towards a common goal. As a WP leader, I oversee the day-to-day activities, and support the consortium is making key decisions to bring their solutions to the market, and make an impact. My motto is: “Science for science is beautiful, science for impact is even better”!
Can you walk us through the work already completed and planned in your Work Package?
Our WP focuses on 2 pillars: the first one is Communication and dissemination, which ensure maximum visibility for the project, and international reach in the scientific community. Since the beginning of the project, DINAMINE partners have participated in events, where they presented papers and results of the project, been active on professional social media, for the industrial Scientific and general community to keep informed on the activities, published papers in renowned journals, and participated in synergistic activities for knowledge sharing with consortia that work on similar topics. PNO supports the partners in this endeavour, and is in charge of collecting and spending knowledge created in the project. On the exploitation side, PNO conducted a market analysis, which allowed to better grasp who innovates in the sector, what’s the reality of the market today (trends, threats, challenges, opportunities), what digital solutions are already available, and how a new solution could better respond to the industry’s challenges. Then, interviews were conducted with key opinion leaders in the field to refine our understanding of the needs of those who work every day in the industry, and how to best respond to them. In parallel, PNO supports the consortium in defining how to bring the DINAMINE solutions to the market, to maximise the impact of their research, and participate in making the sector greener and more efficient.
How do you envision the future of mining in Europe?
The future of mining is digital. Digitisation is a possible solution to virtually all of the top challenges the industry encounters today: from the scarcity of raw materials in Europe, to the difficulties of ensuring a positive business case for certain deposits or ore, to the need to significantly reduce emissions while ensuring productivity, to more transparent communication with the public and to ensuring safety of the workers and communities impacted by mining operations.
What outcomes are you aiming for with DINAMINE?
With DINAMINE we hope to change the paradigm for small and medium entreprises in Europe, who have historically been left out of the digitisation game (particularly in central and south Europe), due to technical and overall financial difficulties. Nonetheless, these companies are at the core of our extractive industry, and must be supported. Thus, our common goal is to develop the most impactful and the most beneficial digital solutions, with ISM-PM and its modules, and with the semi-autonomous jumbo drill, and successfully bring them to the market, in order to transform the science behind them, into actual emission reductions, actual savings, and actual enhanced safety for workers and communities.
