UniGR draws a positive conclusion on the kick-off event of the UniGR-CIRKLA Center for Circular Economy of Materials & Metals, which took place on 01 June 2021 in a virtual format as part of the "EU Green Week".
The launch event brought together more than a hundred participants from business, regional administrations and academia. In the morning, a public event addressed the scientific, economic and technological challenges of the circular economy of metals and materials in the Greater Region, in the context of the European Green Deal. Two panel discussions were held: on the topic of regional strategies for the deployment of the circular economy and on innovation communities as promoters of a circular economy.
The various presentations by the speakers were followed by stimulating discussions. Even though the implementation of the regional strategies is still in progress, the idea of a future cross-border cooperation for an integrated circular economy at the level of the Greater Region was raised in the first panel discussion. Professor Eric Pirard from the University of Liège stated: "The spaces of the individual regions of the Greater Region are too small to guarantee a circular economy. It is therefore necessary to coordinate strategies".
>> Programme (German and French) and press release (German and French).
  |
Furthermore, an emphasis was set on networking with stakeholders (companies as well as public institutions and research institutes) in order to stimulate technological innovation which is essential for achieving practical goals of reuse, repair and recycling of products at the end of their life cycle. Finally, circular economy is about coordinating the life cycle of materials, according to Didier Zimmermann, Education and Innovation Director of EIT Raw Materials: "A waste product from one industry can become raw material for another".
In the afternoon, three scientific workshops were held for the researchers of the UniGR partner universities around the three main focuses of CIRKLA: Materials & Product Design, Buildings as Material Banks and Urban Mining & Recycling. In these workshops, the first projects of the competence centre were developed and discussed together in a fourth "co-creation" workshop.
>> Video presentation of the scientific workshops
Centre of Expertise UniGR-CIRKLA
Contact :
