Appreciation for C-ECO's research work 

C-ECO has just been awarded the German „Innovative through research” seal. With this seal, the Stifterverband has honored researching companies for their special responsibility that they assume for the country and society since 2014.

C-ECO puts a lot of effort in research. The company participates in three European Union as well as in one BMBF (German Federal Ministry of Education and Research) funded research projects. Furthermore, C-ECO develops new business models and finds new paths for circular economy.

The Stifterverband is a German joint initiative started by companies and foundations, devoted entirely to consulting, networking and promoting improvements in the fields of education, science and innovation. To fulfill its task to examine and evaluate the German research and innovation system, the Stifterverband collects annually data on research and experimental development (R&D) of the German business enterprise sector.

Overview over C-ECO’s current projects

CarE-Service
The CarE-Service project aims at demonstrating Innovative Circular Economy Business Models based on advanced mobility services exploiting hybrid and electric vehicles. Such business models will entail re-use, remanufacturing and recycling of components and materials of hybrid and electric vehicles for applications in the automotive sector as well as in other sectors.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 776851.

Resource-efficient Circular Product-Service Systems (ReCiPSS)
The project aims to explore success factors for circular manufacturing models at a large scale. Two industrial demonstrators of the Automotive and White Goods Industries are involved in the project and  will demonstrate the successful implementation of circular manufacturing systems where the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) is in full control of the entire product throughout all stages.

As part of the automotive spare parts demonstrator, C-ECO and Robert Bosch GmbH will streamline the reverse logistics flow for 80,000 cores, enabling aftermarket stakeholders to close the loop by using a single service provider for reverse logistics and by simplifying the existing complex trade levels. The CoremanNet service network, well established in the European automotive aftermarket, will be the first to integrate this new services in its infrastructure.

EIBA
C-ECO is currently leading the project of EIBA (Sensory detection, automated identification and evaluation of old parts based on product data and information about previous deliveries), funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

The transition to the circular economy, the reuse of products, requires an efficient collection and identification of used products. What are they made of? What can be used? Due to its history, each product is unique. Nevertheless, it is often similar to its successor models. In order to facilitate identification, an artificial intelligence (AI) evaluates the product in the "EIBA" project.

DigiPrime
The EU-funded DigiPrime project will develop the concept of a circular economy digital platform in order to create circular business models based on the data-enhanced recovery and reuse of functions and materials.
Specifically, it will create and operate a federated model of digital platforms for cross-sector business in the circular economy. DigiPrime will be validated through several cross-sectoral pilots, further detailed in 20 use cases covering different European industrial sectors (automotive, renewable energy, electronics, textile, construction), and by additional pilots in new sectors, funded through an open call mechanism.

About the Stifterverband seal

Some of these projects have received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 776577-2, 776851 and H2020-DT-2018.