Future Lab: Digitized Circular Economy

The Circular Economy Future Lab of the state of Lower Saxony aims to promote digital innovations for the sustainable use of natural resources. In times of growing demand for raw materials and limited availability of resources, the transformation to a resource-efficient economy is an indispensable challenge. Digitalisation plays a central role in this by enabling comprehensive changes in the economy and society and thus contributing to reducing emissions and protecting the ecosystem.

The future lab is being supported with funding totalling 3.7 million euros from the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and the Volkswagen Foundation. The circular economy focuses on using products for longer, reusing components from disused products and recycling materials in order to minimise waste. Digitalisation contributes to transparency in the product life cycle and promotes the development of sustainable business models, for example by facilitating sharing, reuse and repair services. This makes the material cycle more efficient and economical.

The Circular Economy Future Lab at the Centre for Digital Innovation Lower Saxony (ZDIN) aims to transform the economy in a way that conserves resources by developing digitally networked and AI-supported products and services. Within the research network, the match focusses on automated disassembly in order to optimally prepare processes such as remanufacturing or recycling. Findings from research on complex capital goods are to be transferred to mass products by developing processes for analysing the condition of products and disassembly planning based on this. This work promotes the integration of dismantled components into new products.