Afbeelding
With the government-wide programme 'Netherlands Circular 2050', the Netherlands has a high ambition for society's transition to a circular economy. National objective is to use no more primary raw materials by 2050 at the latest, and 50% less primary raw materials by 2030 as an interim milestone.
Plastics are a very important and indispensable material group in this respect, with a huge field of application as endorsed by the National Transition Agenda Plastics. While the demand for plastics will continue to rise in the coming decades, the societal challenge is to produce, use and process plastics in a circular and sustainable way.
Reason
The SPRONG group has been working together on this topic for some time and is currently in development phase 3. With this trajectory proposal, the SPRONG group aims to continue developing into a Powerful SPRONG group over the next few years. This means:
Strengthen and further develop substantive profile and profiling
Stronger coordination of research and projects, development of a continuous learning line in connection with research
Stronger use of and service provision in the network and further development of the network: national and EU
Further development of quality improvement and assurance for the group and in combination with Design Based Research
Measuring and, above all, making an impact
Together with the professorships, consortium and network, we will spend the next four years working on a socially relevant trans-disciplinary research programme based on Design Based Research, an action and investment agenda for quality analyses and lab facilities, and a solid internal and external profile. We will also start a PhD/Postdoc programme, connect professional practice and explore the establishment of a Practorate. We will further integrate our quality policy and come up with quality guidelines at SPRONG group level to guarantee high quality and ensure integration with DBR. Finally, we are going to measure impact, and more importantly MAKE IMPACT.
The aim of the consortium is to make an impact by developing new knowledge and conducting research in order to significantly reduce the amount of waste from plastics.
What problem does the project solve? What challenges are there?
The SPRONG group is making an important contribution to the KIA Energy Transition and Sustainability, and in that context it dovetails seamlessly with the KIA Circular Economy, which was drawn up at the request of the government as part of the mission-driven top sectors and innovation policy to stimulate and focus the development of knowledge and innovation on the Circular Economy (CE).
One of the societal challenges is to make the design of plastic applications circular and maximise the available amount of plastics for recycling. This is in line with European and national policies, and with the strategy of an investment-ready cluster of companies, governments and knowledge institutions in the Northern Netherlands.
Plastics are a very important and indispensable material group in this respect, with a huge field of application as endorsed by the National Transition Agenda Plastics. While the demand for plastics will continue to rise in the coming decades, the social challenge is to produce, use and process plastics in a circular and sustainable way.
Circular design combined with improving recycling capabilities makes it possible to recover 87% of plastics by 2050.
In the transition to a circular economy, there is therefore an important task for the plastics materials group in designing and recycling plastics.
Who is the project team?
NHL Stenden and Hanze together with the University of Groningen and the National Plastics Testing Centre represent the knowledge institutions in this cluster.
A SPRONG comes after an impulse. Therefore, with this track, we provide an impulse team in addition to the researchers and other staff members involved.
The impulse team consists of a research coordinator, project coordinator and a project developer whom we are funding from this SPRONG.
Currently, the group has a size of 26 to 27 FTE for research and almost 60 FTE of teachers (situation on 1 January 2021). The expertise covers multiple disciplines, all necessary for the powerful SPRONG. Almost all staff have a permanent appointment, with the exception of PhD students.
An overall project leader is also appointed who is responsible for the day-to-day management of the project, and monitors progress and results. The project leader is assisted by an administrator/controller. We are creating new positions for specific components. These include the project developer, research coordinator and project coordinator.
How does the project team tackle it?
The development phase consists of the following components.
Profiling: for each project and its (sub)activities, the substantive expertise of the SPRONG members is deployed
Professionalism: the current composition with the required knowledge and expertise of the SPRONG group is determined, including a clear overview of those involved in the SPRONG group and the current personnel policy.
Quality: the SPRONG group with its track-record monitor and ensure quality on and take care of data management and Open Science according to current guidelines.
Impact: the SPRONG Group maps the impact and knock-on effects of the research in education and practice.
The research trajectory has a duration of 4 years in the first phase, and has a number of sub trajectories with clear intended outputs and results. Whereas a regular project is divided into work packages, this trajectory is divided according to the SPRONG components.
The existing research groups and management are given a number of additional tasks and activities, such as drawing up a research programme, an investment agenda, PhD/Postdoc programme, qualities data management.
The research groups within the SPRONG group report their progress, time expenditures and investments to the project leader.
In the first four years of the SPRONG trajectory, we develop the DBR methodology and apply it in phases to an increasing part of the research. For the longer term (5 to 8 years), we foresee the need for trans-disciplinary, integrated and innovative research focused on: development of alternative biodegradable raw materials, new generation sustainable and circular plastics, sustainable and circular collection models, and sorting and separation techniques based on Artificial Intelligence. Design Based Research plays a central role in this and we basically apply it within all research.
We draw up the research, action and improvement agenda in co-creation with practical organisations, using our own expertise and (international) national knowledge, trends and developments. We review and evaluate these annually. Through this process, we ensure that we remain at the forefront in the long term and continue to meet the needs of organisations in the field.
Main/preliminary results
A planning has been made with the trajectory proposal where insight is given into the elaboration per (sub)activity of the first 4 years. This has been included as an appendix.
In addition, three appendices have been sent along that provide insight into the objectives and ambitions for the research developments and impact according to BKO 2016-2022.
The title of the appendix is: Appendix to executive summary - Planning and insight into research developments and impact.
Project partners
These named parties in the project team connect knowledge with some 100 practical organisations and civil society organisations.
The SPRONG group is co-represented by Innovation Pact Friesland, Association Circular Friesland, Chemport Europe, Bio Cooperative and Entrepreneurial Emmen.
The research is co-conducted in a number of well-equipped laboratories with support. The Circular Plastics lectorate shares lab facilities with Van Hall Larenstein.
