Canadian-German Eureka Co-Chair 2024-2025

Circular economy is gaining new momentum in society and the economy.

It is becoming increasingly important to conserve our limited resources, maximise the lifespan of components and keep them in a cycle.
Circular economy is already being successfully implemented in some areas with a focus on material recycling and/or returning materials to production.
However, these are often individual solutions and although some circular processes are already technically feasible, they are not profitable for companies and are therefore not implemented.
The idea behind circular value creation is to further develop the circular economy in such a way that individual solutions or individual cycles are networked with each other and material and component flows are harmonised.

Due to the global distribution of resources and the international trade of production goods, a functioning circular value chain can only be conceived globally, but must nevertheless be implemented specifically for the respective regions and sectors.

The international Eureka network, which links as many cycles as possible, creates intersections that significantly simplify the implementation of circular processes. To achieve this, we need to think about and discuss a systemic approach, the right data economy, the people who will implement this and the necessary technologies.
In order to incorporate the diverse global requirements and objectives, it is necessary to discuss them in an international process with experts from the Eureka member countries and to derive research needs and recommendations for action for policy-makers.
From July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025, Canada and Germany co-chair Eureka. As part of this the vision of circular value creation will be further developed. Individual areas of the vision, so-called vision clusters, will be discussed in several design thinking workshops in order to create the basis for an economic, social and ecological realisation of the vision – research needs and political recommendations are the results in each case.

The results will be summarized and leading to an Eureka Call in June 2025.

Further information on the Canadian-German Eureka Co-Chair 2024-2025.

Dates and Events

  • 01 to 02 April 2025: Global Innovation Summit 2025 @ Hannover Messe (Hannover)
  • 14 to 17 April 2025: Canadian Circular Economy Summit 2025 & Workshop  #businessmodels (Montréal)
  • 11 to 13 June 2025: Third network meeting (Montréal)

Process Roadmap

 

October 2024
Design Thinking Workshop 1 #focusonpeople (Berlin)
  • Identify the needs of European and Canadian company leaders/HR professionals regarding the establishment of circular literacy, pro-circular-mindset, and circular talent management at employee and corporate levels to develop skills for circular value creation.
December 2024
First network meeting & Design Thinking Workshops 2 + 3 #datatechnologies & #systemic (Berlin)
  • Identify the (technological) needs of decision makers in global SMEs to cross-link their circular value creation chains (or extend their value creation system) using data.
  • Identify the (technological) needs of decision makers in global SME‘s regarding circular value creation in order to measure and evaluate the effects of circular approaches.
March 2025
Second network meeting & Design Thinking Workshops 4 + 5
#dataecosystems & #circulartechnologies (Bonn)
  • Identify the requirements data ecosystems must meet for participating companies and countries within value creation networks to enable business models for a circular economy. How should these ecosystems be designed to establish (international) circular value creation networks within the next 10 years?
  • Identify which technological hurdles (modification, composition, and harmonization of existing or to-be-developed technologies) need to be overcome to enable companies to establish circular value creation within the next 10 years. Which technologies, in addition to data-driven AI technologies in particular, will have the greatest impact?
April 2025 Global Innovation Summit 2025 @ Hannover Messe (Hannover)
Agenda
April 2025 Canadian Circular Economy Summit 2025 & Workshop
#businessmodels (Montréal)
June 2025 Third network meeting (Montréal)
June 2025 Joint Eureka Call for Network Projects

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Contact Persons

Dr. Henning Krassen (BMBF)
Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
Division Future of Work and Value Creation; Industry 4.0
+49 228 99 57-3278
henning.krassen@bmbf.bund.de
Michelle Lazaratos (NRC)
National Research Council Canada (NRC)
Division Future of Work and Value Creation; Industry 4.0
Michelle.Lazaratos@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca
Project Management Agency Karlsruhe (PTKA)

Alexander Mager
+49 721 608-31427
alexander.mager@kit.edu

Dr. Cathrin Becker
+49 721 608-24580
cathrin.becker@kit.edu

Daniel Adam
+49 721 608-31415
daniel.adam@kit.edu

Dorothee Weisser
+49 721 608-26150
dorothee.weisser@kit.edu

Kai Martin Lickint
+49 721 608-26090
kai.lickint@kit.edu