Research Lighthouse Missions

Each Lighthouse Topic covers a broad research area, thus Lead Universities were identified for all topics according to their expertise and strategic future research plans.

Lead UniversityLighthouse Mission (LH)
University of LeónLH1 Responsible Material Flows
Technische Universität Bergakademie FreibergLH2 Environment and Water
Technical University of CreteLH3 Sustainable Materials and Products
Montanuniversität LeobenLH4 Clean Energy
Silesian University of TechnologyLH5 Process automation and Industry 4.0
Hasselt UniversityLH6 Health and Circular Economy

A systematic approach for the derivation of the Research Lighthouse Missions is shown in the following figure:

The exact definition of the Lighthouse Missions is currently being finalised by the respective sub-groups. A general overview of the individual Lighthouse Topics can be found below:

LH1 Responsible Material Flows

The current economic system of human civilization is built on growth. But what can sustainable growth look like, so it does not disadvantage future generations? In order to prevent or reduce future resource scarcity, it appears to be essential to understand the environmental impact of product flows. Concerning the negative environmental impacts of extraction and production, it is necessary for further considerations to also examine the consumption phase and the end use in more detail. Since products generate an impact along their entire value chain, it is necessary to know all aspects and to analyse not only the environmental impact but also the social and economic dimension. Based on this data collection, hereafter decisions can be made that adequately address problems. The goal is to direct all aspects of human life into sustainable paths through a closed loop economy. To achieve this goal a risk impact assessment must be carried out. Additionally, the alternative with the least consequential damages has to be selected.

Cradle to cradle is already extensively possible today. With the aim of consistently completing this path, it is essential to bring all involved and required stakeholders on board in order to integrate them and necessary new scientific findings into this process.

LH1 Responsible Material Flows

LH2 Environment and Water

The natural system on earth is currently changing rapidly. The scientific community is now talking about a new geological era (the Anthropocene). However, to what extent and in which context are humans actively intervening in the natural cycle of the Earth´s ecosystem? How can solutions be found to reduce this influence in the future? Through a targeted monitoring of pollution indicators and a targeted impact management, which includes all pollution aspects as well as interrelationships of the planetary boundaries, negative end effects such as the fast-on-going climate change can be slowed down, reduced and in the best case stopped. Impacts such as man-made climate change, the loss of the ozone layer, eutrophication of landscapes and waters, etc., have a major negative impact on human civilization and on ecosystems. Due to the interaction of human activities with nature, it is essential to better describe and evaluate the cause-effect relationships.

The objective of LH 2 is to restore, protect, and preserve the health of our environment and water. The Mission is designed to deliver on the European Union’s 2030 quantified and measurable targets for protecting and restoring ecosystems and waters, for zero pollution, and for decarbonisation and net greenhouse gas emissions reduction towards climate neutrality.

LH2 Environment and Water

LH3 Sustainable Materials and Products

The term Sustainable Materials refer to materials locally sourced, with low embodied energy (includes anything a material requires for growth, production and transportation, including the water and other resources needed to grow natural items as well as the gas consumed during product transportation), appropriate for the climate in which they are used, influencing their degradation rate and replacement frequency. [1]

How our society uses materials is fundamental to our economic and environmental future. Global competition for finite resources will be intensified as the world population and economies grow. More productive and less impactful use of materials helps our society to remain economically competitive, contributes to our prosperity and protects the environment in a resource-constrained future. [2]

Lighthouse 3 is thematically very closely linked to Lighthouse Mission 1 "Responsible Material Flows". The end-of-life concept should be replaced by the concept of reducing, reusing and recycling materials in conjunction with the incorporation of waste streams into production processes in order to integrate the circular economy approach into the materials production sector. Due to the rapid population growth in emerging and developing countries, it is important to drive the development and transition to more sustainable materials and products worldwide as quickly as possible.

[1] www.smartcitiesdive.com/news/most-eco-friendly-building-materials-world-bamboo-cork-sheep-wool-reclaimed-metal-wood/526982 (03.2022)

[2] www.epa.gov/smm/sustainable-materials-management-basics (03.2022)

LH3 Sustainable Materials and Products

LH4 Clean Energy

Based on the Paris COP21 resolutions, which are binding under international law, a large-scale transformation of our energy systems towards a supply of renewable energy sources will take place in the coming decades. However, even if high shares of renewable potentials are expanded, most industrialized countries continue to rely on (renewable) imports. In order to reduce them as much as possible, increasing efforts on primary energy efficiency measures are crucial. In this context, many of those countries already started to use more energy-efficient processes and to increase the use of renewables. While decreasing CO2 emissions can already often be observed in private consumption (especially space heating), services and agriculture, the situation in industry and manufacturing is stagnating. The use of renewable energies and, in particular, energy efficiency measures have essentially only reduced CO2 emissions to the extent, that they would otherwise have resulted from economic growth effects. In addition to the energy coverage and CO2-reduction aspects, in future energy systems, the management of volatile energy generation resulting mainly from wind and PV, will play an essential role.

The research in the Lighthouse 4 “Clean Energy” focuses on overall system approaches. Using a structured work plan, the individual components to be researched are to be combined into optimised overall energy systems.

LH4 Clean Energy

LH5 Process automation and Industry 4.0

The beginning of the first industrial revolution is dated as from the end of the 18th century and was driven by mechanical production plants based on steam power. At the beginning of the 20th century, there was a second revolution based on mass labor production using electrical energy. Then the third industrial revolution began in the 1970s and was driven by automatic production based on electronics, robotics and internet technology. Process automation requires the use of technological solutions to limit or replace human intervention and labor in the execution of processes. It can be applied in every level of the process execution from the physical actions of the actuators to the decision support at an enterprise management layer. The goal of automation is to improve the production efficiency based on specific criteria, e.g. economic, environmental or product quality based. In that regard process automation is a powerful tool that can be applied directly to obtain specific SDG12 targets at an enterprise, local socio-economic environment and in turn on country or continent level. With each successive industrial revolution, automation has become a crucial part of production processes and is now present in every industry and often an important part of our everyday lives. The concept of fourth industrial revolution (often called Industry 4.0) has provided a wide spectrum of novel and innovative tools, improving the efficiency of automatic systems even further.

LH5 Process automation and Industry 4.0

LH6 Health and Circular Economy

Our health-care system is confronted with several major global challenges such as demographic changes (e.g., aged population), increase in noncommunicable diseases, the negative impact of climate change and pollution on human health, medical waste, the risk for new pandemics… These challenges can only be addressed through interdisciplinary scientific collaboration and innovation partnerships. Therefore, health is an important focus domain in the UN SDGs and in response to the COVID-19-crisis, it became a priority in the EU policy with specific actions to support national health systems.

The goal of Lighthouse Mission 6 on Health and Circular Economy is to develop sustainable health care and reduce its ecological and societal impact. Moreover, LH6 focuses on circular economy in green infrastructure in order to actively shape environments that benefit human health and environment. The development of new interventions aimed at improving healthy living is another pillar within LH6.

The topic of ‘Health and Circular Economy’ links a major societal challenge (healthy society) with the core ambitions of EURECA-PRO and the United Nation’s SDG 12: towards responsible consumption and production of goods in health-care.

LH6 Health and Circular Economy
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