Abstract:

The European Commission has adopted an ambitious Circular Economy Package (2015), which includes revised legislative proposals on waste to stimulate Europe's transition towards a circular economy which will boost global competitiveness, foster sustainable economic growth and generate new jobs. The Circular Economy Package consists of an EU Action Plan for the Circular Economy that establishes a concrete and ambitious program of action, with measures covering the whole cycle: from production and consumption to waste management and the market for secondary raw materials. The proposed actions will contribute to "closing the loop" of product lifecycles through greater recycling and re-use, and bring benefits for both the environment and the economy. Then, a new relationship with our goods and materials would save resources and energy, and this implies that scientific activity should be committed to the H2020 energy challenge. In this context, EIDOS is a research group at the University of the Basque Country, which focuses its activity in Materials Science with the aim of creating new materials for energy storage and transport. Thus, this work explores the way in which the concept of circular energy has been included in the formation plan of EIDOS doctorates. To this purpose, an analysis of the research strategy included in the last doctoral theses of EIDOS has been performed. The research strategy is usually focused to contextualize the thesis project within the social needs. The results indicate that the circular economy concept has been adopted by EIDOS students in relation to two main points: green production and recycling of new materials for energy and catalysis.

References:
[1] https://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regdoc/rep/1/2015/EN/1-2015-614-EN-F1-1.PDF
[2] W. R. Stahel (2016) “Circular economy”, Nature, 531, pp. 435-438.

Keywords:

doctoral students, circular economy, H2020 energy challenge.