A new European project funded by Erasmus+ has been launched within the fields of social business and educational innovation. Under the name ‘Circular Design: Learning for Innovative Design for Sustainability’, this initiative will enhance the creation and consumption of sustainable products and services, aligned with European Circular Economy policies.
This will be achieved through a knowledge co-creation process and the development of training materials in order to teach and train students, faculty and enterprise staff of the design sector in Innovative Design for Sustainability (IDfS) strategies.
Over the next three years, the ‘Circular Design: Learning for Innovative Design for Sustainability’ project will involve thirteen partners including European universities, design centres and companies from four different regions: Catalonia (Spain), Ireland, Holland and Sweden. Amongst them:
Four Universities, the leading partner Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya – Barcelona Tech (UPC), University of Limerick (UL), NHL University of Applied Sciences (NHL) and Linköping University (LiU).
Four Design Centres, Barcelona Design Centre (BCD), Institute of Designers of Ireland (IDI), House of Design (HoD), Swedish Industrial Design Foundation (SVID).
Four companies; NutCreatives (NutC), One Off, Better Future Factory (BFF), Habermann Design & Development (HD&D).
And also one creative fab provided by the Barcelona city council: Ajuntament BCN Ateneu Fab.
The project will lead to an increase and improvement in the learning strategies of Design for Sustainability, will identify opportunities for sustainably designed products and services as well as creating business opportunities in both higher education institutions and industries in Europe.
Open educational resources and training courses for industry staff and academics in Innovative Design for Sustainability will also be co-created and targeted at academics, students and companies. Some common goals amongst Circular Design partners are to train up innovative and entrepreneurial designers who are capable of dealing with a transition towards Design for Sustainability as a mainstream design approach, as well as to promote cooperation and mobility with the EU's partner countries. In this way, an international internship scheme of Engineering Design students in enterprises and DFLabs will be developed.
All the above will contribute to establish a basis for a permanent and active European Network of Design for Sustainability.
Further information about ‘Circular Design: Learning for Innovative Design for Sustainability’: www.ciculardesigneurope.eu