CircularMetal workshop – Work Package Linkages and Interdisciplinary Cooperation

The workshop had three sessions, each with a different focus. In the first session, there were oral presentations given by Early Career Researchers from our Centre on various topics such as Black Hole Alloys, The Metal Health Service, Macroeconomics, The Big Repair Project, and the CM Visions 2050 Report. The second session, chaired by Prof. Mark Miodownik, focused on the bigger picture, and the discussion was centred around the circular economy. The questions addressed included the definition of circular economy, the relationship between circular economy, sustainability, and Net Zero, and the feasibility of achieving full metal circulation by 2050. In the final session, chaired by Prof. Brian Cantor, the focus was on how the work packages could work better together. The discussion touched on the relationship between technical, business, and economic perspectives, the trade-off between short-term and long-term circularity, and the potential case studies to explore further in order to develop strong collaborations and thus to get closer to the central idea of this programme, namely interdisciplinarity.