Project: Circular Plastics Network for Training

2020-01-01 – 2024-05-31

Abstract

Bringing plastics into the circular economy is one of the great challenges of our age. C-PlaNeT lays the foundations

for a New Plastics Economy through a European Joint Doctoral Programme that trains 15 Early Stage Researchers

(ESRs) to become part of a new generation of scientists, engineers and policy makers for the EU’ circular economy,

which must include the design, processing, use and reuse of plastics. C-PlaNeT focuses on excellent international

research, training in complementary skills, including entrepreneurship and the translation of research into policy,

international as well as cross-organisational and intersectoral mobility, active involvement of the non-academic sector,

dissemination, awareness raising and public outreach.

As a truly multidisciplinary proposal, C-PlaNeT is well-balanced across different scientific fields of equal importance:

chemistry, social sciences, engineering, political sciences, product design and business model development. Moreover,

through the 20 non-university partners, C-PlaNeT is anchored across all sectors relevant for the Circularity of Plastics.

All ESRs will advance the current state-of-the-art of their respective fields, which together cover the whole life cycle

of plastics. To this end, they are supervised by at least 2 promotors from 2 universities and a partner outside university,

with whom they will also take an internship. They will participate with each other in a cooperative learning scheme

to take their research beyond the borders of their own respective disciplines and gain a holistic appreciation for the

complex issue of Plastics in a Circular Economy.

As such C-Planet has the ambition to be a game changer for the circularity of plastics as a material resource, based on

and excellent and multidisciplinary research and training programme.