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The new CircEL project is researching ways to achieve a truly circular economy. Engineers and lawyers at the University of Freiburg will work together to investigate the conditions necessary for using materials, components and products for longer and in a more sustainable manner. The Carl Zeiss Foundation is funding the research project with three million euros over the next six years.
The circular economy is a sustainable alternative to the so-called throwaway economy: raw materials, materials and products are preserved and recycled for as long as possible. Product design and manufacturing contribute to this, as do use, repair and waste management. From July 2026, an interdisciplinary research group of engineers and legal scholars at the University of Freiburg will be investigating ways to achieve a genuine circular economy. The Carl Zeiss Foundation is funding the “Circularity Engineering and Law” (CircEL) project for six years with three million euros. The University of Freiburg is contributing an additional 700,000 euros.
From waste law to warranty law for material defects
“In the field of circular economy, there is unfortunately still a wide gap between political aspirations and reality. We want to change that and thereby contribute to a more sustainable society,” says Prof. Dr Frank Balle, professor at the Institute for Sustainable Systems Engineering (INATECH) at the University of Freiburg. Together with Prof. Dr Jan Henrik Klement from the Faculty of Law, he founded the research group. The aim of the two scientists and their CircEL team is to demonstrate specifically how better recycling of engineering systems can be achieved and to enable a legal framework that takes this requirement into account.
This poses a variety of challenges, given the numerous legal requirements ranging from classic waste law to product design law and, for example, warranty law for material defects. “We need a pioneering spirit in both disciplines, a great willingness to listen to each other and a lot of enthusiasm for the cause,” says Klement.
Sustainability and transformation research
With the help of funding from the Carl Zeiss Foundation, four interdisciplinary doctoral theses and two postdoctoral positions are to be created in Freiburg, among other things. Expert workshops, specialist conferences and joint publication projects are also planned. “With our project, we also want to create a platform for future cooperation between the two faculties, from which our university will benefit in the long term,” says Balle. Klement adds: “We are building a new, permanently connected bridge between technical sustainability research and legal transformation research.”
CircEL fits perfectly into the “Paths to Sustainability” focus area of the University of Freiburg's research profile and strengthens the “Circularity Engineering” research field (www.circularity-engineering.de) at the Institute for Sustainable Systems Engineering (INATECH). At the Faculty of Law, environmental and sustainability law is to be incorporated more strongly into the focus area of German, European and international public law, among other things. The Freiburg CircEL team is advised and supported by a group of experts from industry, legal practice and academia, as well as by economic experts.
About the Carl Zeiss. Foundation
The Carl Zeiss Foundation promotes science and teaching in the STEM disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. As a partner to excellent science, it provides scope for basic and applied research. The foundation was established in 1889 by Ernst Abbe in Jena and is now one of the oldest and largest private science-promoting foundations in Germany. It is the sole owner of Carl Zeiss AG and SCHOTT AG. Its funding activities are financed by the dividend distributions of the two foundation companies.
About Prof. Dr Frank Balle
Prof. Dr Frank Balle is Professor of Power Ultrasonics and Engineering of Functional Materials at the Institute for Sustainable Systems Engineering (INATECH www.inatech.de) in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Freiburg. His areas of expertise include the use of ultrasound-based technologies for joining, separating and evaluating sustainable material concepts, as well as the new field of research known as “circularity engineering”, i.e. the engineering side of the circular economy. He is currently also Dean of the Faculty of Engineering.
About Prof. Dr Jan Henrik Klement
Prof. Dr Jan Henrik Klement is Professor of Public Law at the University of Freiburg. His areas of expertise include German and European administrative law, particularly environmental law, public commercial law and information law, as well as constitutional law and legal theory. Klement also serves as a judge at the Higher Administrative Court of Baden-Württemberg (10th Senate) with jurisdiction over waste law.
Contact
Office of University and Science Communications
University of Freiburg
Tel.: 0761/203-4302
kommunikation@zv.uni-freiburg.de
https://uni-freiburg.de/en/sustainability-in-lieu-of-a-throwaway-society-a-resea...
In the new CircEL project, engineers and lawyers are working together to explore ways of achieving a ...
Copyright: Silvia Wolf / University of Freiburg
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