Leuphana involved in innovation community for reusable systems
2024-06-27 Lüneburg/Wuppertal/Berlin. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has selected 20 innovation communities for funding from almost 500 project outlines as part of the DATIpilot funding guideline. Leuphana University Lüneburg is involved with Prof. Dr. Steffen Farny in the project "Innovative reusable systems: The breakthrough to the circular economy in Germany" (MEHRCE).
In the project, the Wuppertal Institute as project leader, the Mehrwegverband Deutschland e. V., Kühne Logistics University and Leuphana will be working on innovative transfer and research projects over the next four years. Their aim is no less than to make Germany a pioneer of the circular economy in the packaging sector.
An average of 249 kg of packaging waste is produced per person per year in Germany. In order to change this sustainably, the participants want to implement three innovation phases. Firstly, new collaborations are to be initiated, thus creating the opportunity for new solutions. These then have to prove themselves in competition in the next phase.
"The third phase will be particularly exciting," explains Steffen Farny, an expert in sustainable entrepreneurship. Then it's all about putting the newly acquired knowledge into practice. "To this end, experienced innovators will be given the opportunity to contribute their knowledge to another organization across sectors."
The community starts with an established network of around 100 companies, start-ups and non-governmental organizations that are involved in the Reusable Association and the "Mehrweg.Einfach.Machen" alliance with WWF and ProjectTogether. Two sub-projects will start right at the beginning of the community: the development of a planning tool for reusable logistics networks in system catering and the investigation of purchasing decision processes with regard to reusable packaging in retail.
About DATIpilot
Around 80 universities, research institutions, companies and other organizations are involved in the innovation community teams. Around 40 percent of the projects focus on social innovations. With the DATIpilot funding guideline, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research aims to promote the transfer of knowledge and research into application, develop new solutions for social challenges and gain important insights for the promotion of innovation and transfer as well as the development of DATI.