Canadian-German Eureka Co-Chair 2024-2025

in German language

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

  • 03 to 05 December 2024: First network meeting & Design Thinking Workshops 2 + 3 #systemic & #datatechnologies (Berlin)
  • 05 to 07 March 2025:  Second network meeting & Design Thinking Workshops 4 + 5 „circulartechnologies“ & „dataecosystems“ (Bonn)
  • 01 to 02 April 2025: Global Innovation Summit 2025 @ Hannover Messe (Hannover)
  • 11 to 13 June 2025: Third network meetings (Montréal)

Process Roadmap

October 2024 Design Thinking Workshop 1 #focusonpeople (Berlin)
Identify the needs of European ans Canadian company leaders/HR professionals regarding the establishment of circular literacy, pro-circular-mindset ans circular talent mgmt on emplyee level and on corporate/organizational level in order to develop skills for circular value creation and establish a learning process to succeed in the transition towards circular value creation. more
December 2024 First network meeting & Design Thinking Workshops 2 + 3 #systemic & #datatechnologies (Berlin)
March 2025  Second network meeting & Design Thinking Workshops 4 + 5 „circulartechnologies“ & „dataecosystems“ (Bonn)
April 2025 Global Innovation Summit 2025 @ Hannover Messe (Hannover)
April 2025 Design Thinking Workshop 6 „tbd“ (Montréal)
June 2025 Third network meeting (Montréal)
June 2025 Joint Eureka Call for Network Projects

Contact Persons

Dr. Henning Krassen
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
National Research Council Canada (NRC)
Director, Special Initiatives
Michelle.Lazaratos@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca

Alexander Mager
Project Management Agency Karlsruhe
+49 721 608-31427
alexander.mager@kit.edu

Dr. Cathrin Becker
Project Management Agency Karlsruhe
+49 721 608-24580
cathrin.becker@kit.edu

Daniel Adam
Project Management Agency Karlsruhe
+49 721 608-31415
daniel.adam@kit.edu

Dorothee Weisser
Project Management Agency Karlsruhe
+49 721 608-26150
dorothee.weisser@kit.edu