Research
Here's a short overview of the Circular Product Design research group and ongoing research projects at IDE on the subject of CE.
Circular Product Design: One of DE's Research Areas
Who's working on Circular Product Design? Meet the CPD team:
There are 3 departments at the faculty of IDE: Design Engineering (DE), Industrial Design (ID) and Product Innovation Management (PIM).
Circular Product Design is one of the 8 research areas of the DE department (amongst for example Mechatronics and Design for Sustainability).
The TU Delft is part of the exclusive group of Pioneer Universities of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation marking our true commitment to advancing knowledge on CE.
Check out this page for more information on the 'Circular Product Design' Research Area.
Professor
Ruud is the chair of the new research team of Circular Product Design. He was previously involved in research and development related to product recyclability at Philips.
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Associate Professor
Conny is driving the field of CE at IDE. She is one of the co-authors of the renown Products that Last book. Conny also coordinates numerous courses on the topic including the CE MOOC.
Associate Professor
Nancy is both working at DE and PIM, and is also a fellow at Cambridge. She specialises in sustainable business models and design & innovation for a CE.
Phil Brown
PhD Candidate
Phil's research explores tool development to support organisations and their value chains transition to circularity. He was a Schmidt-MacArthur Fellow (representing Cranfield University, UK) in 2014.
Emilia Ingemarsdotter
PhD Candidate
Emilia’s PhD is part of the Marie Curie Innovative Training Network Circ€uit. Her research explores how emerging technologies, such as the Internet of Things, can act as enablers in the transition to a circular economy.
PhD Candidate
Farzaneh is a real globe-trotter. She's conducting research on design for end of life of electronics. Her PhD is sponsored by ENIAC.
Lecturer
Ingrid finalised her PhD on Nature-Inspired Design Strategies with a focus on Biomimicry and Cradle-to-Cradle at IDE. She's co-founder of the design bureau IDEAL&CO.
Marcel den Hollander
Senior Researcher
Marcel is co-author of the renown Products that Last book. He's finalising his doctorate on circular business models and strategies.
Jan Konietzko
PhD Candidate
Jan's PhD is part of the Marie Curie Innovative Training Network Circ€uit. He will look at how companies can create new forms of value and achieve scale while transitioning to circular, PSS based business
models.
Flora Poppelaars
PhD Candidate
Flora's PhD focuses on the shift towards circular consumption from a customer's perspective. She graduated in IPD at IDE on the development of a circular phone and was a Schmidt-MacArthur Fellow in 2013.
Marita Sauerwein
PhD Candidate
Marita graduated in IPD on the aesthetics of materials from waste (Revived materials).
For her PhD she will look into 3D printing for a CE.
Deborah Sumter
PhD Candidate
Deborah is a SPD graduate from IDE. The topic of her PhD is ‘Circular Product Design (Companies in transition)’, with a focus on how designer can facilitate the transition to a CE. It's part of ResCom (see below).
Vivian Tunn
PhD Candidate
Vivian's PhD is part of the Marie Curie Innovative Training Network Circ€uit. She will explore aspects of circular business models with a focus on how businesses can stimulate consumers to consume more sustainably.
Who's acquainted with the topic? CPD allies:
The members of the Circular Product Design team are not the only ones well-versed in Circular Economy topics. Here's a non-exhaustive list of colleagues at the TU Delft and beyond with whom the CPD team is working.
Professor
Jo is the chaired professor of Integrated Sustainable Solutions at the reseourch group Design for Sustainability (DfS) at the DE department.
Associate Professor
Ruth is an Associate Professor of Consumer Research at the PIM department. She conducted a PhD on product attachment.
Lecturer
Bas coordinates the Sustainable Design Engineering minor. He's conducting research on alternative power sources for portable products and specialises in direct methanol fuel cells.
Senior Researcher
Dave is driving CE at the TU Delft and beyond. Dave is manager of (a.o.) the LDE Center for Sustainability and EIT Raw Materials for the TU Delft. He's currently working at Architecture but previously researched at IDE.
Professor
Erik Jan is a Professor of New Product Marketing at the PIM department. His research focuses on launch and branding strategies for new products.
Sharon Prendeville
Researcher
Sharon did a post-doc at CPD focusing on new methods and tools for the implementation of design for remanufacturing practices within companies
ir. Cheyenne Schuit
researcher
Cheyenne works on the ‘Circular Business Project’ with consultancy ‘Innoboost’ and Nancy. She also supported Conny in the United Nations Environment Programme project on product lifetime extension.
Ongoing Projects
Research by theme
Various themes are researched within the CPD team. Here is a non-exhaustive list of the largest themes the group is specialised in.
business models
Circular ways of bringing products and service to customers are essential to ensure the possibility of adopting circular design strategies and closing loops. This includes new offers of product ownership.
Research conducted by Conny Bakker, Nancy Bocken, Marcel den Hollander, Jan Konietzko, Flora Poppelaars and Vivian Tunn
circular consumption
To keep products, components and materials in a CE, customers have to participate. Changing their perception of CE products and services as weel as their behaviour is key.
Research conducted by Conny Bakker, Flora Poppelaars and Vivian Tunn
design strategies
Circular product design strategies cover all the ways to enable designers to design products, services and systems for a circular economy.
Research conducted by Conny Bakker, Nancy Bocken, Farzaneh Fakhredin, Marcel den Hollander, Ingrid de Pauw and Deborah Sumter
company transition
To implement CE on a broader scale, companies and their value chain have to transition towards circular strategies internally.
Research conducted by Nancy Bocken, Phil Brown and Deborah Sumter
Product life extension
Product life extension covers all the strategies to maintain a product and its embedded resources at their highest value.
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Research conducted by Conny Bakker, Marcel den Hollander and Cheyenne Schuit
recycling
Even though being the outer circle of CE's butterfly model, products and systems have to be designed for recycling to ensure closing loops.
Research conducted by Farzaneh Fakhredin
emerging technologies
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Research conducted by Emilia Ingemarsdotter
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3d Printing
3D printing opens a considerable amount of doors in the context of a CE but also comes with challenges to stay in the loop.
Research conducted by Mariet Sauerwein
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Also check Phil Brown's Schmidt-MacArthur Fellowship report
Past Projects
Ongoing Projects
Researches regularly fit in a broader context of international research projects.
Research Project
ResCoM
The Resource Conservative Manufacturing consortium develops a methodology and software platform for the industrial implementation of closed-loop manufacturing systems
Research conducted by Mariet Sauerwein, Deborah Sumter, Ingrid de Pauw and Conny Bakker within IDE
Co-funded by the European Commission and partnered with companies such as Granta Design and Bugaboo
Research Project
Circuit
The Circular European Economy Innovative Training Network focuses on business model innovation for the Circular Economy
Research conducted by Nancy Bocken, Ruud Balkenende, Erik-Jan Hultink, Jan Schoormans, Conny Bakker and Ellis van den Hende within IDE
Financed through the H2020 Marie Sklodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network grant and partnered with amongst others the EMF and Toyota
Research Project
UNEP
United Nations Environment Programme
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Research conducted by Conny Bakker and Cheyenne Schuit within IDE.
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Research Project
European Remanufacturing Network
ERN aims to drive remanufacturing activities throughout Europe. Two-year long project.
Research conducted by Nancy Bocken, Dave Peck and dr. Sharon Prendeville within IDE
Funded by the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme of the EU
Research Project
GreenElec
Designing and manufacturing electronics for more effective recycling
Research conducted by dr.ir. Jaco Huisman, dr.ir. Conny Bakker and Farzaneh Fakhredin within IDE
Partnered with industry (for example Philips Lighting, TNO and IMEC), EU and EU member states.
Research Project
LCA-to-Go
Making Life Cycle Assessment accessible for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
Research conducted by dr.ir. Conny Bakker, dr.ir. Andreas Köhler and Natascha van der Velden within IDE
Within the EU seventh Framework project (FP7) and partnered with TU Vienna and a variety of European Small and Medium Enterprises
Research Project
Nature-Inspired Design Method
Integrating nature-inspired design methods into the product development process (Check out their book!)
Research conducted by dr.ir. Erik Tempelman, ir. Ernst-Jan Mul, ir. Bram van der Grinten and ir. Ingrid de Pauw
Partnered with amongst others Philips Design, IDEAL&CO, Océ and van Gansewinkel
Research Project
Products that Last
Creating value propositions without producing more stuff (Check out their book!)
Research conducted by dr.ir. Conny Bakker and ir. Marcel den Hollander
Partnered with amongst others InterfaceFLOR, Ahrend, Vodafone and Enviu
Past Projects
Network
Materials Innovation Network (CRM Innonet)
Creating a network of stakeholders in critical raw materials.
Coordinated by David Peck
Within the EU seventh Framework project (FP7) and partnered with a range of European organisations
Research Project
ProSUM
This project will deliver the First Urban Mine Knowledge Data Platform, a centralised database of all available data and information.
Research conducted by Dave Peck within IDE.
Horizon 2020 project with 17 partners from research intsitues, geographical surveys and industry
Research Project
EIT Raw Materials
The KIC adresses sustainable exploration, extraction, processing, recycling and substitution, as well as raw materials' impact.
Research conducted by Dave Peck
within IDE.
Body of the EU. support 40 incubated ideas, create 16 start-ups before 2018, over 1000 masters and PhDs by 2018, 70 patents by 2022