€143 million call for research projects into reuse and remanufacturing launched to encourage development of ‘factories of the future’.
Resource reported on the launch of the European Commission’s (EC) €143-million ($182 million) research and innovation project, ‘Factories of the Future’, which is calling for research projects investigating reuse and remanufacturing in order to look into “reuse and remanufacturing technologies and equipment for sustainable product lifecycle management”.
It is hoped that the project will help to reduce the environmental footprint of the EU, as well as to increase resource efficiency and the competitiveness of EU industry, by encouraging manufacturing industries to “develop innovative technologies and approaches to manufacture added-value products with fewer resources” and “ensure a sustainable product lifecycle based on reuse and remanufacturing methods and technologies”.
The EC predicts that successful projects could “significantly reduce” energy consumption and the use of non-renewable materials, contribute to a “minimum” reduction of 20 percent in greenhouse gas emissions from manufacturing activities and 10 percent in waste generation, and a 20 percent increase in productivity rates; as well as creating “new, safe, and sustainable” jobs.
Research projects of interest would include those that address areas such as “eco-innovative approaches for product design” that involve reuse and remanufacturing for “product recovery and spare parts/services support”; manufacturing and equipment concepts for reuse and remanufacturing that improve resource efficiency and service lifetime; technologies and automation solutions for “the effective disassembly/separation and recovery of advanced materials; and generation and validation of new business models to “improve the economic viability of closed-loop lifecycles which make use of the systemic approaches for product lifecycle management”.
The project comes after the EC noted that many technological products are currently made from “advanced materials” that are “poorly recovered and reused”, stating that “there is a need for new product design approaches […] that use resources more efficiently and can be reused or easily broken down for recycling”. The EC added that “by aiding the extraction of resources and working components of end-of-life products, creating longer lifespan products, and promoting reuse, businesses would save time, money, energy, and resources”.
The EC expects projects to request between €3 million ($3.8 million) and €6 million ($7.6 million) in funding, which “would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately”, although it will accept proposals requesting other amounts.
The deadline for research project submissions is 4 February 2015.