Project Proposal and Expression of Interest
Conference UNIVNET 2022, Brno, Czech Republic, 26. 9. – 28. 9. 2022
1. August 2022
Conclusions from the Conference UNIVNET 2022 – Innovative Machines, Technologies, and Materials in Circular Economy Environment
25. October 2022Project Proposal and Expression of Interest
Recycling society platform, bringing together universities and industry, is looking for other partners or leaders of project consortia to develop our project concept into a successful project proposal.
The UNIVNET association offer expertise and seek collaboration to carry out R&D in recycling and waste recovery in the automotive industry
The UNIVNET association, a joint effort of five Slovak research universities and the Automotive Industry Association of the Slovak Republic, offer their research & innovation expertise and seek for collaboration in project consortia to carry out further research and development activities in the recycling and waste recovery, particularly in the automotive industry. We are looking for new partners and/or an experienced leading platform, institution, university, a project applicant, or a project consortium with their own project proposal.
Project Proposal
The UNIVNET research teams have been aiming to propose systemic solutions for transition towards a circular economy in the automotive industry, vehicle lifecycle management, sustainable circular use and valorisation of local resources, value chains promoting zero-waste and recycling quality, increasing products function recovery and reuse, using secondary raw materials (including critical raw materials) and valorising local bio-based feedstock.
The University of Economics in Bratislava (EUBA) as a coordinating partner, in close cooperation with the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava (STUBA) and other partners, created an international consortium and submitted a project proposal in 2022 within the HORIZON-CL4-2022-TWIN-TRANSITION- program 01. The project proposal was rejected, nevertheless all parties involved believe no time and effort was wasted and the project has a great potential to succesfully resubmit it.
We are hoping to re-submit an improved project proposal as soon as new opportunities arise.
The main goal of the project was the creation of a digital platform to support the decision-making of end users and regulators and the integrated and predictable management of waste generated from automobiles in Europe, both waste in the life-cycle phase and the end-of-life phase of vehicles.
Creating a unique digital platform envisaged achieving three main goals
- increase technological readiness in the field of smart green technologies in specific waste markets by supporting a significant increase in flexibility and international cooperation,
- to predict changes in defined markets for automotive waste in EU countries and thus enable a quick response to them,
- to demonstrate cases of best practices in selected clusters in EU countries and to develop specific innovative technological opportunities and shifts in technological readiness for waste treatment.
The ambition of our project proposal was to support the transformation of waste management and waste markets in line with the goals of the circular economy and focus on the automotive sector in selected project pilot countries.
The existing information system developed by the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava – Integrated Information and Innovation Platform for Recycling Technologies, created as part of a project carried out for the Recycling Fund of the Slovak Republic, was to be used in the project.
Main outputs planned
- A digital platform structure based on existing IS, launching a new platform including a new contracting and payment systems
- New technologies to achieve increased volume of recycled materials from ELV and in the vehicle repair and maintenance sector
- New clusters and PPP in circular economy of the automotive sector, facilitating transfer, development and implementation of new green technologies
- Further waste management, waste market analyses and forecasts on automotive waste
Who submitted the project proposal
Besides the partners from Slovakia, universities from several other EU countries signed up for a joint project.
The proposed consortium included several foreign institutions, experts from universities in the Netherlands, Finland, Spain, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, and Taiwan.
Business as usual is not an option anymore for our economies and new concepts of the circular economy are needed. With the increased importance of the automotive sector, not only in the EEC region, a transition to a new collaborative model in waste management is becoming urgent.
Waste market and management in the automotive sector in Europe is confronted with several important trends and regulations that significantly affect the current business models. Eastern European Countries (EEC) face several new challenges. Countries in the EEC region such as the Slovak Republic have become a place for allocating huge car production capacities due to their favourable geographical location and other comparative advantages. For a large proportion of the population of the EEC, the latest environmentally friendly vehicles and models are unaffordable due to lower income. The lower income of the EEC population is one of the reasons why imports of used cars from all over the world are growing which will also lead to increased waste streams in the next years in this region.
UNIVNET expertise
Major Slovak technical and economic universities have been cooperating for several years with representatives of the automotive industry, with processors, recyclers, and disposers of vehicle waste throughout their entire life cycle. The potential of the UNIVNET platform to collaborate and intensify research towards a more efficient and more environmentally oriented circular economy in the automotive sector is based on the results to date, which include studies and scientific articles by UNIVNET members and teams in several areas.
Timeline
2016
Integrated research platform for the evaluation of individual waste flows, in particular, the automotive industry
2019
The UNIVNET association, a joint effort of five Slovak research universities and the Automotive Industry Association of the Slovak Republic www.univnet.sk
2020
1st publication Status and vision of recovery of waste from the automotive industry in the Slovak Republic
2021
2nd publication Progressive technologies of waste recovery in the automotive industry
3rd publication Analysis of the State, Forecasts and New Technologies of Waste Recovery in the Automotive Industry [ISBN: 978-3-96595-008-5, RAM-Verlag]
2022
4th publication
A new UNIVNET publication, the fourth in a row, Smart Technologies for Waste Processing from the Automotive Industry, Scientific Monograph of UNIVNET 2021, Bratislava, August 2022 [ISBN: 978-3-96595-023-8, RAM-Verlag]
The platform is a continuation of the 2016-2017 initiative or project results – “Integrated research platform for the evaluation of individual waste flows, in particular in the automotive industry“. The need for such a platform arose in line with the EC’s intentions to review the recycling and other waste-related targets set out in the key directives governing waste management. The creation of the platform reflected the intention of the EU to move towards a circular economy and through “A zero waste programme for Europe” encourage recycling, reduce consumption of primary raw resources, ensuring access to critical raw materials through waste recovery and thus creating room for sustainable economic growth.
If you are interested in partnership or need further information please contact Dr.h.c. prof. Ing. Ľubomír Šooš, PhD., Dean, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, SLOVAK UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY IN BRATISLAVA, Phone: +421 2 572 965 39, E-mail: lubomir.soos at stuba.sk, www.sjf.stuba.sk
You can find us on the social networks LinkedIn and Facebook under the username UNIVNET Research.
