Loops First Webinar: Wednesday 8th of July at 11 am CET

What is Loops?

We are pleased to introduce our newest public events initiative: ‘Loops’, a webinar series about the research and results that Horizon 2020 is producing in the field of circular economy. 

Horizon 2020 is an EU research program, which has nurtured innovation in a number of fields by funding over 10 000 research proposals. Many of these are in the domain of sustainability and the circular economy, accelerating Europe’s transition to a greener, more equitable society. Horizon 2020 will soon be succeeded by Horizon Europe, the EU’s next R&D program, which has a more explicit focus on climate change and our adapting communities, lifestyles and nations to cope with, and limit, its repercussions. 

Consequently, we believe there is no better time to reflect the research that Horizon 2020 has produced. The program was designed to be practical and implementation focused: “bringing great ideas from the lab to the market”, building bridges between problems and solutions, and assessing how these impact communities.  We will talk to experts about their experience and insights about how this can happen: how a circular economy practically looks.

In the study of the circular economy, ‘closing loops’ refers to how you adapt businesses models in all areas: acquisition, reprocessing and re-marketing. They form the ‘circular economy’ at the micro-level. In essence, our series talks about these ‘loops’ in different areas of society: from ‘digital’ to ‘biotechnology’ to ‘culture’. 

To begin: A discussion with CE-IoT and IDEAL CITIES

Our first episode, taking place on Wednesday 8th of July at 11am CET, will be about the ‘digital’: acknowledging how much technology has changed our lives, sustaining much of the economic growth still occurring as Europe re-figures its daily life around social distancing. Most specifically, this episode discusses the potential of the ‘internet of things’, in the journey to build sustainable businesses and greener communities. 

For this episode, we will be talking to leaders in the ‘Circular Economy and the Internet of Things (CE-IoT) and IDEAL CITIES projects. The CE-IoT team is formed by researchers across several different academic institutions, companies and countries. By exploring the interplay between the Circular Economy (CE) and the internet of things (IoT), they will discover how business models, products and services can combine these concepts and become more efficient – ultimately, broadening the applicability of both. IDEAL CITIES is a team that is equally as diverse; they aim to use big data to enhance the well-being of cities and better include citizens who are most vulnerable. 

This combination will engender a much-needed discussion about the potential benefits of the digital circular economies and the technologies that can help us make the transition from a linear world to a circular one. 

We look forward to welcoming all who are interested in this topic, no matter your experience or knowledge in this area. We will be streaming it live on Linkedin and at StreamYard. 

See you soon, on Wednesday 8th of July at 11am CET!