Project description
New crop of plastic researchers for Europe
Bringing plastics into the circular economy is one of the great challenges of our age. The EU-funded C-PlaNeT is laying the foundation for a new plastics economy by training 15 early stage researchers to become a new generation of scientists. The project will train these researchers to focus on complementary skills such as entrepreneurship and the translation of research into policy. The researchers have a background in chemistry, social sciences, engineering, political sciences, product design and business model development. These researchers will be involved in international research and will be active in the plastics industry where they will also raise awareness through public outreach.
Objective
Bringing plastics into the circular economy is one of the great challenges of our age. C-PlaNeT lays the foundations for a New Plastics Economy through a European Joint Doctoral Programme that trains 15 Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) to become part of a new generation of scientists, engineers and policy makers for the EU’s circular economy, which must include the design, processing, use and reuse of plastics. C-PlaNeT focuses on excellent international research, training in complementary skills, including entrepreneurship and the translation of research into policy, international as well as cross-organisational and intersectoral mobility, active involvement of the non-academic sector, dissemination, awareness raising and public outreach.
As a truly multidisciplinary proposal, C-PlaNeT is well-balanced across different scientific fields of equal importance: chemistry, social sciences, engineering, political sciences, product design and business model development. Moreover, through the 20 non-university partners, C-PlaNeT is anchored across all sectors relevant for the Circularity of Plastics.
All ESRs will advance the current state-of-the-art of their respective fields, which together cover the whole life cycle of plastics. To this end, they are supervised by at least 2 promotors from 2 universities and a partner outside university, with whom they will also take an internship. They will participate with each other in a cooperative learning scheme to take their research beyond the borders of their own respective disciplines and gain a holistic appreciation for the complex issue of Plastics in a Circular Economy.
As such C-Planet has the ambition to be a game changer for the circularity of plastics as a material resource, based on and excellent and multidisciplinary research and training programme.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Coordinator
9000 Gent
Belgium