Knowledge Alliance on Product-Service Development towards Circular Economy and Sustainability in Higher Education Erasmus Project

Project Title

Knowledge Alliance on Product-Service Development towards Circular Economy and Sustainability in Higher Education

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Knowledge Alliances for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics:

Project Summary

KATCH_e is a knowledge alliance between Higher Education (HE), companies and research centres to promote the building of competences in the field of product, product-service systems and business models design and development for the circular economy and sustainability, in the construction and furniture sectors.KATCH_e is contributing to the efforts, at national and EU levels, of fostering the transition from a take-make-use-dispose model that depletes natural resources and destroys ecosystems, to a circular model where the value of products, materials and resources is maintained in the economy for as long as possible and the generation of waste is minimized.The project focuses on the development of innovative and multidisciplinary training materials targeting HE academic fields of Design, Engineering, Sustainability Sciences and Business Management. Complementary to the KATCH_e theoretical resources (eight modules and an online course), seven tools that support the academic approach but are also suited to the implementation by businesses have been developed.The implementation of the projects’ results in academic and company contexts created several case studies that can be used as teaching elements and as inspiration by other companies engaged in circularity and sustainability.The objectives of KATCH_e are:• To develop training materials to encourage cross-curricular learning, connecting mainly with designers and engineers and other relevant stakeholders;• To develop a new educational focus through a cross-sectoral real problem-based learning approach, involving university students, professors, researchers, companies and other stakeholders to integrate circular economy and sustainability thinking in design education, defining as well didactic recommendations for teaching;• To encourage multidisciplinary relationships and to support the exchange of information, experiences and materials between the partners and stakeholders, through the creation of structures (a knowledge platform and a hub) and activities to engage stakeholders from different areas in a systematic and efficient;• To foster the entrepreneurial skills and motivations to students and simultaneously, providing companies and professionals of the target sectors the knowledge to analyse and to define new competitive market strategies in a more circular society, thus favouring the recruitment of future employees and the creation of new companies and business models;• To set the foundation for a strong and lasting knowledge alliance between HE and business: joint development of curricula, development of training materials and suitable tools, co-creation of innovative solutions, etc. for continuing the cooperation after the end of the project period.The KATCH_e consortium is led by LNEG, I.P., Portugal, and is composed of 11 partners from four EU countries: Portugal, Spain, Austria and Denmark. The project’s duration was 36 monthes (January 2017-December 2019).

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 999951 Eur

Project Coordinator

LABORATORIO NACIONAL DE ENERGIA E GEOLOGIA I.P. & Country: PT

Project Partners

• ASOCIACION DE INVESTIGACION DE LASINDUSTRIAS CERAMICAS AICE
• HOJER MOBLER AS
• UNIVERSITAT JAUME I DE CASTELLON
• TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET WIEN
• OSTERREICHISCHES OKOLOGIE-INSTITUT
• DOKA GMBH
• AALBORG UNIVERSITET