Circular European Economy Innovative Training Network

Project Information

CircEuit

Grant agreement ID: 721909

DOI

10.3030/721909

Project closed

EC signature date 10 August 2016

Start date 1 September 2016

End date 31 August 2020

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 3 991 638,80

EU contribution

€ 3 991 638,80

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITEIT LEIDEN
Netherlands

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - CircEuit (Circular European Economy Innovative Training Network)

Reporting period: 2018-09-01 to 2020-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The global economy now uses 90 Gt resources per annum, a number that may rise three fold by 2050. It will not be possible to deplete and squander resources in a linear 'take-make-waste' economy indefinitely. Ways to create a circular economy should be found, for instance by maintain the value of products and materials in the economy much longer, through business models that capitalise on the longevity of goods. The EU Innovative Training Network Circ€uit therefore focuses on the question of how to realise a circular economy, via educating a group of PhD students determined to generate new knowledge that well help the transition to circularity. In total, 15 early-stage researchers are involved in this training network.
Each of these researchers is addressing a specific topic in one of five areas relevant to the circular economy. These overarching themes include businesses and business models, and more specifically ways of stimulating circular provisioning. Two further categories are dedicated, respectively, to users and supply chains. The projects being tackled by a fourth group of young researchers relate to the design of circular value propositions. A fifth and final set of research projects is exploring aspects of the bigger picture, in terms of the macroeconomic implications of the circular economy and of system changes needed to support it.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Seven academic institutions are involved in the consortium, which is led by Leiden University in the Netherlands. In line with the partners’ emphasis on fostering industry-academia partnership in support of the training of early-stage researchers, the network includes two participants from the private sector. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, set up around 2010 to champion the concept of a circular economy, is also a member. Circ€uit was launched in September 2016. The deliverables all have been provided. Some smaller deviations from the planning include the following:Six successful Schools have been organised (see WP6 report).
a) We wanted to organise Schools where possible back to back to a relevant conference. For this reason the 2nd school was organised by Cranfield instead of to have at least the option that Aston could organise the school back to back to its Spring servitization conference in 2019.
b) The third School has been organised in conjunction with the mid-term review. Since Cranfield organised the second school, this third school was organised by Linköping university since by doing so we could organise it back to back to the CIRP conference they organise in May 2018. This is a conference highly relevant for the Circ€uit ESRs, and many ESRs and supervisors used this opportunity to visit the CIRP conference.
c) All other schools have been executed as planned, with INP Grenoble organising school 4, NTNU organising school 5 and Aston organising school 6..
d) Most ESR’s have been recruited via a Recruitment fair in September 2016, and most of them starting within 3 months after the start of the project. CML had bad luck with 2 withdrawals of very promising candidates for ESR14 (one was in a parallel procedure which offered a job first and a 2nd ultimately withdrew for personal reasons). Ultimately ESR 14 was recruited with a start date of February 2017 (M06). This ESR also faced a major surgery early 2020 which delayed his work with various months..
e) COVID-19 that lead to lockdowns since March 2020 prevented ESR13 and 14 to do their planned secondments at NTNU and TUD. It forced us as well to have the final conference in the form of a virtual event.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

We distinguish five main perspectives that are particularly relevant for a transition towards circular PSS business models and on which the research of the 15 ESRs will contribute to the state of the art:
1. Business models (ESR 1-3; lead: Aston Business School): . New ways are required to organise and value businesses and services. In addition to the businesses involved along the value chain, the interactions with design, user and system are explicitly taken into account. The core research question here is: How to create business value by circular provisioning?
2. Supply chains (ESR 4-6; lead: Cranfield University). The role and weight of players along the supply chain will change, especially asking for developments in the areas of services, reverse logistics and remanufacturing. New ways of data acquisition and data management need to be implemented The core research question here is: How can we organize supply and delivery chains for circularity?
3. User (ESR 7-9; lead: NTNU), i.e consumer (B2C), user (B2B) or government (B2G), but also stakeholders like retailers, or interest organisations and other NGOs. Social and behavioural practices have to be better considered to determine if a circular value proposition is going to be successful. Awareness creation in the public and corporate domain is of high importance. A focus on users is then necessary – of course including end-users, but also on other actors in the value chain. The core research question here is: How can we stimulate, facilitate and motivate circular consumption?
4. Design (ESR 10-12; lead: Linköping University) of circular solutions – products that are for example suitable for inclusion in PSSs, or for upgrading, reuse, refurbishing or remanufacturing may require different design strategies, user involvement processes, assembly and disassembly processes, and marketing strategies compared to more traditional products. Using new technologies and ways of communication will be enablers. The core research question here is: How can we design circular value propositions (products, services or PSS)?
5. System (ESR 12-15; lead: Leiden University). For assessment of socio-economic and environmental aspects the larger system is relevant to avoid sub-optimisation in a small segment with adverse effects elsewhere. Scenario building and simulation tools for circular economy need to be further developed to support decision making when trade-offs occur. The core research question here is: How to ensure economic and environmental benefits and support change related to circularity?

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