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The Academy of Finland awards over €2 million to support research on circular economy and sustainable development in Tampere

Published on 20.12.2018
Tampere Universities
Kiertotalous
The Strategic Research Council (SRC) of the Academy of Finland has decided to add four new research consortia to the SRC programme titled “Keys to Sustainable Growth”. One of the consortia to receive funding is the Tampere-based “Circular Economy Catalysts: From Innovation to Business Ecosystems”.

The research consortium titled "Circular Economy Catalysts: From Innovation to Business Ecosystems (CICAT2025)" aims to accelerate Finland's strategic objective to become a global leader in circular economy by 2025. The CICAT2025 consortium is seeking to facilitate the transition from circular economy innovation ecosystems to circular economy business ecosystems.

"We are exploring a wide range of circular economy catalysts that have the potential to accelerate the adoption of circular economy principles in society and markets. Decision makers, policy-makers and companies can then apply those catalyst in an effective manner. Our extensive and multidisciplinary consortium brings together expertise in technology, business, policy-making, the arts, linguistics, legislation and stakeholder relations," says head of the consortium, Associate Professor Leena Aarikka-Stenroos from Tampere University of Technology (TUT).  

"Our multidisciplinary consortium will work to identify measures cutting across our society that will support the transition to a circular economy. We received extensive support for our project not only from Finnish companies, municipalities and organisations but also from international researchers, which validates the importance and topicality of our research theme."  

The members of CICAT2025 also include Pekka Jokinen from the University of Tampere, Hanna Lehtimäki from the University of Eastern Finland, Tiina Onkila from the University of Jyväskylä, Satu Teerikangas from the University of Turku, Juha Suonpää from Tampere University of Applied Sciences and Piia Nurmi from Turku University of Applied Sciences.

The consortium received close to €4 million spread out over the first three years of the project. The share of the universities in Tampere will be more than €2 million of this sum. Sustainable development and circular economy will be one of the profile areas of the new Tampere University. The CICAT2025 project will strengthen and draw from the expertise accumulated in this research field by the local universities that are being merged to create Tampere University.  

Supplementary call

The Academy of Finland granted the funding under a supplementary call of the Keys to Sustainable Growth Programme. The Academy received 62 applications and selected 15 to move on to the second stage of the call.

The supplementary call was launched to support research projects that will facilitate sustainable growth from the perspective of economic activity. The goal is to support and enable the renewal of services and products of Finnish organisations and companies in ways that support sustainable development. Altogether four consortia received funding under the call.  

"Together with the consortia selected previously, these four consortia provide an extensive coverage of the programme's objectives and create a knowledge base that will support both public- and private-sector solutions to promote sustainable growth," said Per Mickwitz, Chair of the SRC.

Inquiries:

Tampere University of Technology, Associate Professor (tenure track) Leena Aarikka-Stenroos, tel. +358 50 301 5476