Carlo Burkhardt holds a PhD in Metallurgy and Materials (University of Birmingham, UK), funded by a Marie Skłodowska-Curie –Fellowship.Between 1996 and 2011he was R&D Director of a large automotive Tier 1 supplier (4.000 employees). Between 2011 and 2017he becameCTO of a medium automotive Tier 1 supplier (500 employees). Since 2017 he is a professor for Manufacturing Technology (Pforzheim University) and since 2022 he is a professor for Materials (int. Postgraduate School, University of Ljubljana (SLO. Also he is the co-founder of two university spinoffs: MetShape GmbH (sinterbased additive manufacturing), HyProMag GmbH (magnet recycling). He is a holder of 11 patents, winner of the German Raw Materials Efficiency Award (2017) and the Ecotech Award Baden-Württemberg (Category Material Efficiency) (2017). In addition, he is also the coordinator of the Horizon 2020/Horizon Europe Projects “REProMag”, “SUSMAGPRO” and “REEsilience”