Seeking research and innovation in sustainable materials for a circular economy
Submit a short summary of research, technologies, and assets developed at your institute and have them proactively disseminated to R&D decision-makers in companies across our global industry network working on new advances towards a circular economy.
This campaign is now closed for submissions.
Through this campaign, which is open to submissions from Monday 25th September to Monday 6th November, we invite all academic researchers, technology transfer offices, and spinout/startup companies to share with us non-confidential details of sustainable materials research, technologies and assets.
As part of this Global Challenge, we are working with four industry partners who are looking to leverage new sustainable materials technologies for a circular economy – Eastman, WestRock, Avery Dennison, and Ecover. R&D leads at each of these companies have shared with us their pipeline priorities and academic partnering requirements through one-page interest documents (links below) and presented them in more detail through a series of online partnering events (catch up with the recordings here).
Our ultimate aim for this campaign is to start valuable new conversations between teams in academia and industry to support the development of new or improved sustainable materials and recycling technologies that work towards achieving a truly circular economy.
- How does the campaign work?
- Who should respond to the campaign?
- What should you submit?
- How to submit your research, technologies or assets
- Other important details
If you have questions or want to better understand how you can get involved, message submissions@in-part.co.uk, and our Global Challenge team will get back to you promptly.
How does the campaign work?
Submitting research, technologies, or assets to the campaign and having them disseminated to industry is free for all TTOs and academics and doesn’t require a subscription to IN-PART.
Our role in the research ecosystem is to simplify the initial connection between teams in academia and industry based on the alignment of interests, technical needs, and priorities. We do the matchmaking, set up the conversations, and then leave the project teams to explore and establish collaborations where suitable. We don’t take success fees from successful partnerships with these campaigns or through our platforms.
Submissions to the campaign will be proactively disseminated to industry teams with aligned interests from October 2023 onwards and, based on their performance, will feature in our post-campaign content programme and research trends white paper.
The campaign will be open to submissions from Monday 25th September, and the deadline for submissions is Monday 6th November.
Who should respond to the campaign?
We want to hear from any researchers working on breakthroughs that can be developed or commercialised by an industry partner to replace or improve existing material technologies in a way that is more sustainable and works towards achieving net zero targets and a circular economy. We also want to hear from university technology transfer and research commercialisation professionals who can provide non-confidential details of projects, technologies, or assets at their institute.
Our Global Challenge campaigns are not limited to universities that have a subscription to IN-PART’s online partnering platform, Connect. These campaigns help us to raise our profile and to grow our academia-industry networks (into which there is a free entry point for every stakeholder), but our core ambition is to contribute to the research ecosystem and society by leveraging our position between the two worlds.
What should you submit?
The scope of this campaign has been informed by industry stakeholders within our sustainable materials network. The R&D and external innovation priorities of each of our industry partners are shared via shareable PDFs linked below.
The scope of the opportunities we’re seeking as part of this campaign includes: sustainable feedstocks and bio-based materials, biodegradable materials, recycling and valorisation technologies. The campaign is sector-agnostic and opportunities can address any point in the material lifecycle to improve circularity.
In addition to our industry campaign partners, we also have an extended network of 2000+ specialised materials, chemical, waste management, engineering, and food and beverage companies with active pipelines seeking new innovation from academia. We will be disseminating the campaign submissions to industry teams across this network whose interests cover every angle of sustainable materials and waste management R&D.
Some of these companies have also shared their specific research priorities:
We are also partnering with other stakeholders in the research ecosystem to support the delivery and drive success through the campaign.
- ASTP
- The Bio-based Industry Consortium
- The Flexible Packaging Association
- The Materials Innovation Initiative (MII)
How to submit your research, technologies, or assets
If you are an academic researcher, or you work in a technology transfer office:
Use our submission form to outline a short non-confidential summary of your project, research, technology, or asset and submit it by email to submissions@in-part.co.uk (there will be no costs from IN-PART to engage with this campaign at any stage).
If your technology transfer office has an active IN-PART subscription, you can contact your account manager at IN-PART to find out the easiest way to submit new and existing technologies.
If you already have technologies or assets already listed on our Connect platform that fit the criteria of this campaign, you can highlight these for inclusion in the Global Challenge via your account manager. Your technologies, including any updates, will then be included in our industry dissemination programme, research trends white paper, and associated campaign communications.
For more information on our Global Challenges campaigns visit our FAQs page.
If you have questions or want to know more about this campaign, please share your queries to submissions@in-part.co.uk and a member of our team will get back to you promptly.
Other important details:
- We strongly recommend submitting your research in advance of the campaign deadline to maximise exposure with our industry networks.
- Information about your project or technology will be proactively distributed to industry R&D teams with aligned research interests through our online matchmaking platform, Connect.
- Submitting your work does not require a subscription to our platform, there will be no costs from IN-PART at any stage.
- Support from our in-house team of STEM experts will be provided where required to review and quality-control your submissions.
- Any information sent to us should be non-confidential.
- If you are aware of academic research or technology transfer taking place at your institute to develop new rare disease innovations, please share this submission form with relevant colleagues or teams.
- A maximum of 6 submissions can be made per institute and we reserve the right to only accept research that is aligned with the aims and themes outlined in the call.
- For subscribed universities with a submission limit for IN-PART, any new technologies that are submitted to the global challenge will not count towards your submission total. Twelve weeks after the call closes, this exemption will no longer apply and you may be asked to unlist technologies and/or upgrade your submission limit if your current limit is exceeded.
- Universities with relevant technologies already on IN-PART can email their account manager to request their inclusion in our open research directory, white paper, and associated communications around the campaign.
Campaign partners
As part of this Global Challenge, we are proud to be part of a global community of Official Nominators for The Earthshot Prize 2024, a global environmental prize and platform for impact.
This campaign is being run with support from:
ASTP are Europe’s premier association of knowledge transfer professionals whose work aims to improve the quality of impact that public research has on the economy and society.
The Bio-based Industries Consortium (BIC) is a non-profit organisation that connects industry, academia, regions and citizens to transform bio-based feedstocks into novel sustainable products and applications, and create circular bioeconomy ecosystems through investments, innovation and know-how.
The Flexible Packaging Association (FPA) is the leading advocate and voice for the growing U.S. flexible packaging industry. FPA is comprised of manufacturers of flexible packaging and material/equipment suppliers to the flexible packaging industry.
The Material Innovation Initiative (MII) is a global think tank focused on research, knowledge-sharing, and fostering connections to fast-track the development of environmentally preferable and animal-free materials. We work to cultivate a global market for next-gen materials across the fashion, automotive, and home goods industries.
Written by Anabel Bennett. Edited by Joseph Ferner and Alex Stockham.
Copyrights reserved unless otherwise agreed – IN-PART Publishing Ltd., 2023: ‘Seeking research and innovation in sustainable materials for a circular economy’
About IN-PART:
We believe brilliant connections can solve real-world problems. We match research pioneers from academia with decision-makers in industry sectors striving for a greater positive impact.
Our goal is to enable connections from around the world to match academic research with industry on a level playing field. Through our intelligent, matchmaking platform we showcase leading university innovations and connect academics with an international community of decision-makers in industry, creating meaningful dialogue and partnership.
Connect, a digital partnering platform for university-industry collaboration.
250+ universities and research institutes around the world currently showcase their research and innovation on IN-PART to find new collaboration partners in industry. R&D teams get free access to the platform (create an account here). There are no hidden costs and we don’t claim downstream success fees.
Discover, a bespoke scouting service for open innovation.
Through Discover, corporate R&D teams can leverage our extended academic network, which reaches multiple teams across 2,600+ universities and research institutes worldwide. In response to a specific research requirement or challenge, Discover enables R&D teams to identify new opportunities for commercialisation or to solicit proposals for new research. Sign-up for weekly Discover emails.
