Descrizione

For over two centuries, the artefacts in our everyday life originated primarily from industrially processed materials. That is, materials were developed to meet the requirements and limitations of mass production and consumption. Recently, we are increasingly aware that this model must radically change as we are amid an evolving multi-levelled environmental and social catastrophe. It puts our complete ecosystem in crisis, depleting non-renewable resources, creating hazardous waste, and perpetuating inefficient use of energy resources. With growing awareness and global efforts, today, we are experiencing a shift in the approach to these complex (wicked) problems and their potential solutions. As part of that, there is an understanding of interdisciplinarity's unique value and importance. The value of cross-fertilisation of disciplines is an influential innovation catalyst. We are now acknowledging the need to creatively innovate both our material-based culture and means of production, as well as the disciplinary approach as innovation catalysts. Innovative best-practice examples in industry and agriculture about new material development and applications will inspire and provide solutions for industry, agriculture, and citizens to make further steps towards a more comprehensive circularity. Further on, we hypothesise that by integrating them into (g)local production and consumption chains, new non-linear strategies and business models will rise, nourishing new innovative cycles and solutions further on. The complexity and diversity of the problems at stake are very high and require a broad, open, and interdisciplinary team to tackle them from different angles (Thompson Klein, 1990, p. 11). The project consortium is design-led and includes food technology experts1,2, nano-electronic experts3, anthropologists4 and the local waste management authorities5. The project methodology is based on previous experience in design-led multidisciplinary work, combining scientific knowledge and methodologies with practice-based research. The consortium's experience and broad disciplinary scopes enable a continuous multi-levelled data gathering and analysis of potential local resources. Starting with scoping, mapping, and analysing the region's sources of industrial and agro-food waste and by-products, selecting the most promising substances and processes together with establishing a network of stakeholders (local industry, farmers) working with the selected processes, followed by iterative experimentation and a proof-of-concept phase around the transformation of local under-used resources into novel valuable material alternatives. The team will collaborate with the stakeholders to co-create, test, and validate the substances, materials, processes, and related technologies, envisioning novel sustainable applications to integrate into current production or cultivation cycles.

Partner

Lead Partner Libera Università di Bolzano, Partner Centro Sperimentale Laimburg