academic partners
Leiden University, Institute of Environmental Sciences
The Institute of Environmental Sciences (www.cml.leiden.edu) is an institute of the Faculty of Science of Leiden University. CML is part of the Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Centre for Sustainability (LDE CfS) that focuses on a circular economy. The main area of work is research and education in the multidisciplinary field of environmental sciences. The research projects of the Institute draw from both natural and social sciences. CML’s Industrial Ecology department (CML-IE) deals with research in the area of Industrial Ecology. A core activity is the development of analytic tools such as LCA, MFA, SFA, EE-IOA and combining them into integrated tools such as hybrid LCA, IPAT LCA or more broadly LCSA. Such tools can be used for decision making on sustainable production and consumption. CML-IE has moreover expertise in the areas of resource scarcity / management, renewable energy technologies and agriculture. CML is a partner in the EIT KIC Raw Materials.
NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology
The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) is the primary Norwegian university in engineering and technology, and, after a merger in 2016, it is Norway largest university with almost 40000 students. The NTNU participant in this project is the Department of Design (ID). ID is part of the Faculty of Architecture and Design, which is responsible for research, artistic reseach and education in architecture, urbanism, design and fine arts. The Department of Design is the result of a merger between the former Department of Product Design at Gløshaugen campus in Trondheim, which existed since 1994, and a group of design researchers and educators at the former Gjøvik University College. Today, the department employs 30+ tenured employees, educates about 300 Bachelor and Master students, and houses 15 PhD candidates. It is responsible for various design programs, including a 5 year and 2 year master program in Industrial Design, a 3 year bachelor and a 2 year master in Interaction Design, and bachelor programs in Web development and Graphic Design.
Its research strategy focuses on design for sustainability and interaction design (focused on marine and health applications), with additional focus on media innovations, information design and applied aesthetics. Currently, the department is involved in various EU projects (CIRCUIT, TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA, ENTOWASTE) as well as various projects funded by the Norwegian Science Foundation.
Delft University of Technology
The Industrial Design Engineering Faculty (IDE) at TU Delft is one of the oldest and largest in the world; it has a leading role in the development of the discipline. The faculty is also regarded as a global leader in the field of design research, with currently more than 100 researchers. Design for Sustainability, Circular Economy and new business models are focal topics of the research and education. The faculty aims to support designers and companies in successfully employing design and business models in a circular way. IDE has a track record in eco-design, hosting a Design for Sustainability research group since the early 1990s. From the start, it has been a partner university in the Schmidt-MacArthur fellowship program on circular economy. TU Delft has extensive experience in the fields of eco-design and circular product design and the generation, validation and dissemination of design support tools in particular (e.g. UNEP eco-design manuals). TUD is participating with UL CML in the Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Centre for Sustainability on circularity (CfS). TUD is core partner in the EIT KIC Raw Materials.
Grenoble Institute of Technology
The Grenoble Institute of Technology is part of the Community Université Grenoble Alpes and is one of Europe’s leading technology universities, at the heart of innovation for more than a century. The institute is involved in major development projects such as Minatec, or the Minalogic (micro and nanotechnology and embedded software) and TEneRRDIS (renewable energy) industrial clusters. With its solid combination of teaching, research and business promotion, Grenoble Institute of Technology plays a key role in making Grenoble one of the most attractive scientific and industrial locations worldwide. One of Grenoble INP laboratory, G-SCOP, is a multidisciplinary laboratory which has been created to meet the scientific challenges imposed by the ongoing changes within the industrial world. The scope of the laboratory goes from the products design to the production systems management and is based on strong skills in optimization. The creation of the G-SCOP laboratory is, in Grenoble, the culmination point of a very long history of scientific breakthroughs and collaborations in the field of production systems, product design and operational research. G-SCOP members are very active in CIRP, lead Emiracle a network of excellence in production, lead Visionair a European infrastructure about interaction and visualization. At national level, G-SCOP has been leading the workgroup for the renewing of industry.
Cranfield is a postgraduate only university specialising in Science, Technology, Engineering and Management. Cranfield has 4,300 students from more than 110 countries, a third of students come from outside the EU. As a research intensive institution, Cranfield is renowned for its academic rigour yet close to industry, making it ideal to carry out collaborative research projects with industry. The Centre of Logistics and Supply Chain Management is one of Europe’s largest centres dedicated to research into Logistics and Supply Chain Management. The Centre attracts annual funding in excess of £500K through research council, government and industrial sources. Academic and research staff carry out a variety of research from long-term, research council funded projects which focus on the generation of new knowledge to dedicated, industrially funded work that addresses specific needs.
Aston University Centre for Servitization Research and Practice
The Aston University Centre for Servitization Research and Practice forms part of the Aston Business School which is renowned for strong links to industry. The Centre is dedicated to understanding and promoting servitization, the process by which a manufacturer changes its business model from the sale of a physical product towards a service provision. It incorporates researchers, practitioners and industry leaders. The Centre hosts a range of European-funded research and business support projects which provide the opportunity to work alongside businesses undergoing servitization based business transformations. The Centre’s mission is threefold:
- Pioneer internationally leading research to develop tools that enable servitization.
- Foster global networks of practitioners and researchers for advanced services
- Develop leaders across the globe with the skills to drive business transformation
Linköping University has 27,000 students and a total income of 340 M€. LIU has 4,000 employees
where 45% is working within education and 55% within research. At the department of Management and Engineering researchers have been conducting research within remanufacturing and product-service systems since late 1990s. Their research has attracted attention by industry and academia. In industry, technologies and methods have been implemented and discussed in popular science papers e.g. NyTeknik and Dagens Industri.
non-academic partners
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF) is an independent charity registered in September 2010 at the initiative of Dame Ellen MacArthur. The Foundation aims to accelerate the global transition to a circular economy, the generic term for an industrial economy that is, by design or intention, restorative. The Foundation believes that the circular economy might have the potential to provide an alternative economic model to the existing linear model that will soon reach its limits due to the inevitable depletion of the world’s natural resources, that is being accelerated due to the billions of new consumers joining this economic system. The Foundation sees its role in the transition as one educating and inspiring individuals and groups, and in providing collaboration and knowledge sharing opportunities that aggregate progress and create a ‘tipping point’ for the move to a circular economy. It works in four key areas – education, business, insight & analysis and communication.
Winnow is a UK based technology firm who builds systems to help commercial kitchens better control their production processes and in turn reduce food waste. Winnow has been operating for 2 years and has delivered over £2m in annual food cost savings. Winnow has operations in the UK, Ireland, Thailand, and Singapore.
Toyota Material Handling Europe AB
Toyota Material Handling Europe (TMHE) is a leading forklift truck manufacturer in Europe and also a provider of different services to its truck users. TMHE has been active in lifecycle-based circular business for many years by, for instance, its own maintenance and remanufacturing activities. TMHE sees it crucial to innovate business models with products and services all together, in order to increase resource efficiency.