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Research organisations are joining forces to set up a circular economy ecosystem in Finland. The aim is to build an innovative community capable of designing, developing and experimenting with needs-based, multidisciplinary circular economy solutions based on a wide pool of scientific data and understanding and a holistic approach.

Aalto University, the Geological Survey of Finland, Natural Resources Institute Finland, the Finnish Environment Institute and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT) are looking to pool resources to create new, sustainable and significant business opportunities in the circular economy.

They are also inviting contributions from businesses, other R&D partners, public bodies, regional authorities and non-governmental organisations.

Cooperation between the organisations began with a series of workshops in the spring by addressing six topic areas in circular economy: packaging, textiles, minerals and metals, food supply, batteries, and construction.

Multidisciplinary ideas and concepts

The organisations are now ready to test cooperation in practice by launching a circular design challenge competition. The competition aims at developing multidisciplinary ideas and concepts to overcome the wide spectrum of circular economy challenges in the interfaces between business, technology, regulation, sustainability and environmental impacts.

The tangible objective of the competition is to establish new, active contacts between the organisations, deepen cooperation and build trust, bring together different perspectives of circular economy, and come up with new, holistic ideas and concepts that can be turned into practical projects and development initiatives together with businesses and other partners.

The competition aims to

• stimulate practical research cooperation that factors in the various perspectives of circular economy as well as the big picture and systemic impacts
• spark holistic and sustainable circular economy concepts that address the needs of business, sustainability, technology and regulation and that can lead to groundbreaking innovations
• bring together experts from different organisations and share and build a common understanding of the circular economy among researchers representing different fields,as well as to encourage cooperation between early-career researchers and more senior academics
• build a portfolio of joint projects to execute with businesses and other partners

The teams can submit their ideas by 20 August.

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