GSS EU Science Funding Gateway

Projects should address the priorities set in the CEAP and it will be necessary to boost “sorting, re-use and recycling of textiles, including through innovation”, while “tackling the presence of hazardous substances”. Beside the continuous implementation of the EU plastics strategy, the CEAP has a strong focus on microplastics, but also calls for mandatory recycled content and the controlled use of bio-based, biodegradable plastics and alternative materials. In view of the feasibility problems of plastic recycling, this will require the deployment of technologies that are still in their infancy, such as the various forms of chemical and enzymatic recycling. Projects should deal with one of the three priority material streams (plastics, textiles, electronics), taking however into account the complexity of some materials currently in use (such as composites) and that the three streams are related and to some extent overlapping (plastics-textiles; plastics-electronics), and that specific solutions might require an integrated approach. Projects should demonstrate and deploy at large scale innovative solutions and designs for increased quality, non-toxicity and durability of secondary materials and increased share of secondary materials in new products. Projects should demonstrate increased recovery, recycling and upcycling rates and a higher uptake of secondary materials for high value applications. Projects should also demonstrate circular business practices, in particular in the uptake of repair and reuse, remanufacture, product-service-systems, and in the full lifetime of products or services.  The projects should consider the use of digital solutions and demonstrate their benefits for increased circularity. Decontamination levels need to be properly addressed and accumulation prevented. All achieved outcomes should be demonstrated using quantitative indicators and targets wherever possible. Projects should also develop training material to endow workers in this occupational group with the right skillset in order to deploy the new technologies developed.