Circular Economy

Circular Economy (CE) =! Recycling

The core of CE is researching, designing and creating materials and products intended for the circular economy. Sharing, reusing, refurbishing, redistributing and recycling are consistently thought about, researched and designed from the beginning. This includes reprocessing raw materials from end-of-life products and thus closing the value stream from the product to the molecular level. Curious?

Why is the topic of CE relevant to you as a PhD student or postdoc in engineering, natural sciences, materials science, information science or economics?

In order to realize CE across the board (as is the goal in Europe), approaches from all areas are needed: new raw materials / materials, new methods and processes, new machines / drives / systems, new business models, new logistics, new IT support for all processes and much more. It is about the consequent rethinking of our previous world.

And what does CE have to do with your future career in science or business?

CE is not only the guiding theme of TU Clausthal, it is an integral part of the European Green Deal, is funded with one billion euros in the Horizon 2020 program, is driven by the BMBF, among others, through the Circular Economy Initiative Germany, and is becoming an increasingly important factor for successful and sustainable business across industries in the free economy (You want examples from your industry? Send us an email after registration!)

In two interactive and entertaining individual workshops as well as an expert talk you will get an insight into the Circular Economy, which will allow you to

•     to express yourself confidently on the topic of CE
•     to situate your project / research in it
•     See research and economy from a new perspective
•     Approach your own CE project/research and
•     Take away another skill for your professional future

The goal is to help participants build a fundamental understanding of the Circular Economy. With this change in thinking and perspective, participants will be able to develop and address Circular Economy approaches for their own subject area.
Furthermore, they are aware of the systemic and interdisciplinary connections, which can also play a role in their research work with regard to Circular Economy.
Through the expert discussion, they gain insights into the concrete implementation in ongoing industrial projects.
After completing the program, participants can prescribe their own thematic field as well as their own research and teaching activities in the Circular Economy. This enables them to better align their activities with the profile of the Circular Economy and to make their contribution to it, individually as well as interdisciplinary.

Sequence of events:

Workshop 1: Introduction to the absolute basics of the Circular Economy.

Expert discussion with Prof. Dr. Benjamin Leiding and Frederik Droste-Rehling, with two impulses, Q&A session and networking.

Application workshop: how graduate students can transfer the knowledge to their own research activities