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TRANSItioning towards an Efficient, carbon-Neutral Circular European industry

Circular Progress, Global Impact

TRANSIENCE will undertake a comprehensive characterisation and assessment of circularity principles and measures vis-à-vis decarbonisation, by looking at the twin transition of European industries through the lenses of global competitiveness, innovation, and holistic sustainability.

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Buildings
Concept Concept Concept Concept Concept Concept Concept Concept Concept Concept
Conceptualise
  • Explore links between decarbonisation, circularity, and sustainability of EU industry. 
  • Identify and characterise measures, interactions, and opportunites. 
  • Generate input data and framework conditions for new open source modules.
Engage
  • Co-define operational capacity needs of EU industry, regional clusters, and policy actors.
  • Co-design questions for scenario analyses and validate the desirability of individual modules.
  • Co-produce pathways of sustainable EU industry futures.
  • Validate and build capacity in regional clusters.
Develop
  • Enhance, open, and develop interfaces among service and product databases, global and EU MFA, industrial, socioeconomic, energy, and environmental modules.
  • Develop the new open source MIC3 model. Work on modelling and data coordination, API development, and IPCC AR7 cycle compatibility. 
  • Finalise MIC3 based on user’s feedback. Launch a simplified online version with helpdesk support.
Transform
  • Conduct case study analysis based on the individual open-source modules. Address key policy/industry questions.
  • Promote best practice towards industrial innovation.
  • Model pathways to a circular and climate-neutral European industry, including the global context and SDG dimensions.

Regional clusters

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Basque country map
Pais Vasco (Spain)
Basque country
Automotive icon
Base metals icon
Cement icon
Pulp & paper

The region is the main industrial area of Spain, with a tradition of heavy industries highly concentrated and relevant at national and EU levels. Steelmaking, foundries, automotive, as well as pulp and paper, refining, and cement clusters are among the most notable sectors.

Population: 2.2 million 
GDP per capita: €32,900
Employment in key industries:
- Base metals: 16,549
- Automotive: 13,662
- Rubber & plastics: 12,617
- Chemicals: 4,300
- Non-metallic minerals: 4,000
- Pulp & paper: 3,650

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Port of Rotterdam map
Zuid Holland (Netherlands)
Port of Rotterdam
Chemicals icon
Electrical equipment icon
Refining icon
Seaport icon

The Port of Rotterdam is the largest sea port in Europe. It also hosts one of the largest petrochemical clusters in Europe. In the future, new industrial clusters might form around energy technologies including, for example, carbon capture and storage.

Population: 3.7 million
GDP per capita: €47,800
Employment in key industries: 
- Electrical equipment: 13,964
- Chemicals: 9,370
- Refining: 4,094
- Rubber & plastics: 2,282

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Rhine-Ruhr
Düsseldorf, Köln (Germany)
Rhine-Ruhr
Automotive icon
Base metals icon
Chemicals icon
Rubber & plastics icon

The area is a key industrial powerhouse of Germany. The industrial landscape is highly diversified and competitive. Major industrial clusters include steel industry, chemical industry, and automotive industries as well as rubber & plastic, base metals, and others.

Population: 9.7 million
GDP per capita: €44,000
Employment in key industries: 
- Chemicals: 79,000
- Basic metals: 59,267
- Automotive: 51,348
- Rubber & plastic: 36,424
- Electrical equipment: 33,000
- Non-metallic minerals: 16,500

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Silesia map
Slaskie, Poland
Silesia
Automotive icon
Base metals icon
Non-metallic minerals icon
Rubber & plastics icon

After Warsaw, Silesia is the second most important industrial centre of Poland. Historically it is a coal mining region, but in recent years the economic structure has diversified. It now includes clusters for iron and steel, automotive industry, and energy technologies.

Population: 4.5 million
GDP per capita: €15,400
Employment in key industries: 
- Automotive: 60,897
- Rubber & plastics: 38,904
- Base metals: 22,380
- Non-metallic minerals: 20,179
- Electrical equipment: 19,533
- Chemicals: 8,660