Circular Economy
Moving towards a Circular Economy
What is a Circular Economy?
A circular economy is an alternative to the conventional throw away linear economy – make, use, dispose. A circular economy keeps resources in use for long as possible extracting maximum value and minimizing waste and then to recover and/or regenerate new products and materials at the end of each life cycle. In this way overall raw material extraction is kept to an absolute minimum, materials recycled and reused within the economy. Waste becomes a material resource with an associated value. EU´s 2015 implementation plan for Circular Economy addresses aspects related to: Production design and process, consumption, waste management and from waste to resources. In the context of these aspects the concepts of “re-use”, “resource productivity”, “product repair”, “waste to product”, “renewable energy”, “use of renewable ingredient” and “down-cycling” play a very important role.
The Circular Economy offers the opportunity to re-think and re-design the way we make and use products. As well as explores how through a change in perspective we can re-design and build a restorative economy works.
Example: Circular Economy considerations in the context of mayonnaise
| Ingredients | Processing | Final Product |
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| Concerns/Considerations | Concerns/Considerations | Concerns/Considerations |
Carbon footprint and environmental profile of all ingredients:
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Optimisation of all production steps (sourcing materials, mixing, homogenisation, pumping, packaging, transport) in terms of:
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| Full Life Cycle Assessment to profile environmental impacts | ||
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Circular Economy & Formulated Products
Discover the alternative to the conventional throw away economy.
Industry 4.0 & Formulated Products
Discover how digital tech is transforming manufacturing.
Consortium
Browse the organisations involved in AceForm4.0
Centre for Process Innovation Limited
SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden AB
DECHEMA Society for Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology
Flanders Materials Centre, a division of the Strategic Initiative Materials
Luleå University of Technology of Sweden
Université de Lorraine
Formulated Products
A formulated product is composed of at least two ingredients which are selected, processed and combined in a specific way to obtain well-defined target properties, functionality and performance. It can exist in liquid, semisolid or powder form. A formulated product has a commercial value and is either meant for direct consumer use or for downstream use in industrial applications.
The word “formulation” can be used to refer to different things:
1) Formulation = Recipe A list of ingredients and detailed processing steps used for the development of a blend displaying well-defined target properties, functionality and performance.
2) Formulation= The act of formulating something The combination of processes used for mixing and conditioning of ingredients (actives, protective agents and stabilising agents) as well the know-how and technologies that enable selection of ingredients and mixing processes for the production of a blend with specific target properties, performance and functionality.
3) Formulation= The actual blend of ingredients
Examples of Formulated Products
| Home, Industrial & Personal Care | Pharma & Health Care | Agro Technologies & Plant Protection | Coatings, inks, lubricants, adhesives & chemical industries | Food & Feed | Advanced materials |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Laundry detergents | Self-emulsifiable soft gel-capsules | Emulsifiable concentrates (EC) | Wall paint | Ready-made sauces, dressings and spreads | Drilling oils |
| Fabric Softeners | Parenteral nutrition emulsions | Suspension concentrates (Sc) | Inks (inkjet, screen, flexography) | Ice-cream | Formulations for enhanced oil recovery (chemical injection) |
| Hard Surface cleaners (window, tiles, bathroom, kitchen) | In-situ gelling topical formulations | Suspoemulsions | Paper coatings (barrier) | Soft-drinks | Oil spill remediation |
| I&I Hard Surface cleaners (hospitals, production plants/equipment) | Tablets and water dispersable powders | Seed treatments | Latex-based binder systems | Dairy products | Precursors for chromatography beads |
| Skin lotions | Injectable formulations | Granulated fertilisers | Rolling oil emulsions | Chocolates | Precursors for cellulose microspheres |
| Face cleansers | Vaccine Adjuvants | Pipe-charge emulsions (explosives) | Supplements | Formulations for additive manufacturing | |
| Sun screen lotions | Pulp (cellulose-fibre) dispersions used in paper making | ||||
| Make up (e.g. lipstick, foundations) |
Mayonnaise: An easy-to-relate-to example from the food sector The schematic below describes the three critical aspects involved in the preparation of a formulated product in the context of mayonnaise: a well-known formulated product.
| Ingredients | Processing | Final Product |
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| Concerns/Considerations | Concerns/Considerations | Concerns/Considerations |
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Register and Connect
Register to contribute to the development of Europe’s Strategic Research Agenda and Implementation Plan for Formulated Products.
Circular Economy & Formulated Products
Discover the alternative to the conventional throw away economy.
Industry 4.0 & Formulated Products
Discover how digital tech is transforming manufacturing.
Digital Innovation Centre is an on-line resource of innovation tools addressed mainly to companies and entrepreneurs for the development of new products and the management of innovation activities. The Digital Innovation Centre includes three main components:
Benchmarking is the process of improving performance by continuously identifying, understanding, and adapting outstanding practices and processes of other companies to increase competitive strength. The benchmarking process involves comparing a company’s performance on a set of measurable parameters of strategic importance against companies known to have achieved best performance on those indicators.
Komninos, N., (2002) Intelligent Cities: Innovation, knowledge systems and digital spaces, London and New York: Taylor and Francis, Spon Press.
Komninos, N., (1998) Technopolis and Development Strategies in Europe, Athens: Gutenberg.
Sefertzi, E., (ed.) (1998), Innovation: System-areas, technology transfer, and innovative development in Greece, Athens: Gutenberg.
Elias G. Carayannis is Senior Visiting Professor affiliated with URENIO. He is full Professor of Science, Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, as well as co-Founder and co-Director of the Global and Entrepreneurial Finance Research Institute (GEFRI) and Director of Research on Science, Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, European Union Research Center, (EURC) at the Department of Information Systems & Technology Management, George Washington University in Washington, DC. His teaching and research activities focus on the areas of strategic Government-University-Industry R&D partnerships, technology road-mapping, technology transfer and commercialization, international science and technology policy, technological entrepreneurship and regional economic development.
Dr. Yiannis FALAS has a Mining Engineer degree from the National Technical University of Athens and a PhD on ”Clusters in Traditional Sectors” from the Architectural School of Aristoteles University of Thessaloniki, Greece. His research focuses on European clusters, mainly of traditional sectors of the economy and lately of the wood/biomass/bioenergy sector. After graduation, he worked in the Region of Western Macedonia, as Assistant Co-ordinator of Transport Infrastructure program (1st and 2nd C.S.F.). He has then been the project manager of the Regional Innovation Strategy, RIS and RIS+ Projects, and the “Knowledge clusters” Innovative Actions Program of W.M.
Christina KAKDERI (MSc, PhD) is a regional economist and a researcher focusing on systems of innovation and smart innovation environments (national and regional innovation systems, technology policy, social networks, intelligent cities/districts). Since 2005 she has been involved in numerous EU and national funded projects related to spatial development and innovation ecosystems.
Stratos MANOS is an Architect Engineer and PhD candidate at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Thesis title: The Urban Regeneration and Internationalisation of Cities in Europe).
Nancy (Anastasia) MARTZOPOULOU is a Mechanical and Agricultural Engineer and currently belongs to the academic staff of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning – School of Architecture – Faculty of Engineering – AUTH, where she completed her PhD thesis entitled “Energy and environmental management in industrial concentrations”.
Dimitris MILOSSIS is electrical engineer with studies in the School of Technology, University of Patra, Greece. He has a Diploma in Electronics for Telecommunications from the University of Southampton, England and a Masters cource in Business Adninistration (MBA) in University of Macedonia (Thessaloniki, Greece). He is a PhD candidate at the Department of Urban and Regional Planning of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki on the topic of “Regional Innovation Systems”.
Nitsa PAPADOPOULOU received a Masters in Business Administration from St John”s University U.S.A, specializing in strategic business planning and marketing. Her undergraduate studies are in Linguistics and Education.
Maria PARASKEVA studied at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Before her current position, she was a project manager at the Vocational Training Centre (VTC) for seven years. She was also the head of the department that was responsible for combating people’s exclusion from occupation, and for the department that aimed at promoting graduates to labor.
Isidoros A. PASSAS has a Bachelor of engineering on computer systems from the School of Engineering of University of Sussex in U.K. He is in the process of accomplishing his M.B.A. in University of Sheffield in the U.K. His scientific interests are in the application of information technology in business processes of SMEs, business and cluster intelligence, innovation measurement and benchmarking, and web 2.0 new product development, and website assessmenmt.
Maria S. Schoina is a graduate of the Department of Civil Engineering of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. After graduation she was involved in several structural design studies as self-employed or in cooperation with a design and construction firm. She has also been working as a scientific researcher at the Universities of Thessaly and Western Macedonia, in a series of projects and studies in the fields of Regional Development, Innovation, Management of Technology and Tourism Management.
Elena SEFERTZI received a master of sociology from the University of Paris Rene Descartes-Sorbonne, a post-graduate degree (DEA), and a doctorate from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Science Sociales, Paris.
Paraskevi TARANI studied architecture at the School of Engineering in the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She is a PhD candidate at the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, on the topic “The European Cities in the New Economy of Knowledge”.Her research interests include the area of urban and regional innovation, urban theory and planning.
Panagiotis C. TSARCHOPOULOS received the Diploma degree in Electrical Engineering and the Ph.D. degree in Urban and Spatial Planning from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, in 1992 and 2013, respectively.
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Research Technology Development and Innovation S.L. (RTDI)
Online consultation on 29 RIS3 methods. For each method you will find a description and then follows the area of comments.
Web-based tool that allows RIS3 managers to create visually attractive infographics. 
Invite RIS3 stakeholders to use online deliberation functionalities specifically tailored for EDP.
Enable participatory deliberation using functionality like argument mapping software. 
Οverview of ERDF regulations and EU processes of selecting and funding projects. 
Draw together information on key regional assets. The objective is to support data transparency that enables gap analysis of regional assets. 
A comprehensive and up-to-date mapping of the existing and planned research infrastructures across the EU regions. 
Defining the framework, concepts and categories for mapping the innovation ecosystem of each region. 
Compare the performance of a region with regions that are structurally similar. 
Production of ‘scientific profiles’ for regions based on Web of Science (WoS) data, Scopus and Google Scholar data. 
Technological and economic specialisation indexes for understanding the position of regional activities in global value chains. 
Analysis of regional strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats is a key starting point for applying more elaborate RIS3 methods. 
Tailored online guidelines on the necessary additional steps to arrive at a shared vision for regional smart specialisation strategy. 
A scenario is a “story” illustrating visions of possible future or aspects of possible future. Scenarios are not predictions about the future but rather similar to simulations of some possible futures. 
Delphi is perhaps the most emblematic Foresight or future studies method. A single Delphi methodology exists but the applications are diverse. 
The method will provide a roadmap for the implementation of EDP. It includes industry activities and groups, stakeholders and business leaders involved in the EDP process, the communication of conclusions about the opportunities emerged by the regional and national authorities. 
This method is applied to detect possible industry segments in which regions present increased extroversion, in terms of exports, attraction of FDI, or other forms of regional openness. 
This method will allow for calculating the Related/Unrelated variety entropy indexes. It will compare 2-digit and 5-digit sector shares (%) and will estimate the entropy index for regions. 
The method allows identifying if different policy measures are coherent with the vision and objectives of the region. 
Co-design is a well-established approach in the process of creation, particularly within the public sector. 
The method will provide a framework for using different budgeting methods (incremental, zero budgeting) to capture the funding dimension of the RIS3 action plan and the needs for funding across the defined implementation period. 
State aid law is part of EU competition law and aims at constraining the funding possibilities of public authorities to sustain competition within the internal market.
The method will enable RIS3 stakeholders to assess calls for projects under SF operational programmes that are made by regional authorities. 
Online visualisation tool that teases out information about regional technological trends using grant data that is collected from S3 programmes and initiatives. 
Online data tool in the form of a data repository that allows for a finely grained tracking of projects and initiatives implemented in each region with a link to respective S3 priorities. 
The method will define the overall process/roadmap for RIS3 monitoring, which usually encompasses all sorts of activities that relate to the collection and processing of information about the achievement of expected results and the degree of implementation of policy measures. 
Output and result indicators constitute an essential part of RIS3 monitoring and evaluation. 
Balanced scorecard is a strategic planning and management system that is used extensively in business and industry, government, and non-profit organisations worldwide. 
The method will enable collecting micro data directly from the beneficiaries and ‘end-users’ of public policies implemented through S3. 
This online tool offers simple indicators on the overall RIS3 process by using data coming from social media, such as Twitter or Google trends. 
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