The focus of BounCE4ward is twofold:
1) Identifying and analyzing, from a circular economy perspective, sensitive value chains and sectors affected by supply risk and carbon emissions concerns;
2) Leveraging the outcomes of the analysis to derive future circularity scenarios and potential policy interventions.
Each value chain and carbon-intensive sector (or material) is analyzed from a multilevel perspective including design-engineering, economic, and geopolitical insights and considerations.
The research approach is thus based on a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods including: material flow analysis, life cycle assessments (both applying bottom-up and top-down approaches), economic input-output analysis, econometrics, global analysis of policies and stakeholders.
Furthermore, our approach includes the identification of drivers and barriers, which might respectively catalyze or prevent circularity in the value chain. This multi-disciplinary and integrated approach is relevant to finally define realistic future scenarios, encompassing specific actions needed to increase circularity in the value chain on different levels, including new business models, inter-firm collaborations, EU policies as well as international relations with non-EU countries.