SRS RN: Convergent Innovations in Regional CirCULAR Economies (CIRCULAR)

围绕创建和实施循环经济解决方案的目标组织的研究网络可以解决区域系统面临的日益增长的社会、经济和环境影响。通过对芝加哥市及其周边城乡联系的案例研究，研究网络规划将探讨导致不可持续的资源消耗和废物产生的潜在系统结构和相互作用。规划还将确定基于新兴循环经济领域的潜在解决方案。规划小组将与跨学科研究人员和非学术合作伙伴合作，共同制定一个将区域系统转变为循环经济的研究议程。该小组还将探索融合研究机制，从不同角度深入整合知识、方法、工具和专业知识，以推进区域循环经济的研究。最后，该团队将设计一个协作平台，使科学界和主要利益攸关方可以在此平台上分享知识、转化发现，并加强多样性和参与度。将进行一项规划活动，分析区域循环经济中的不同行动者如何影响各类资本的存量、流动、枯竭和再生，以及如何明确确定这些流动可能形成潜在的创新。将探索新的思维、技术和商业模式，从供应链前端通过重新设计产品和开发资源共享模式，从后端通过关闭材料循环来应对循环经济的挑战。循环经济商业机会的创造，特别是在边缘化的城市和农村社区，将通过融合的方法来解决，包括多资本流动、数据科学和公共政策，以及参与式共同设计方法。这种方法将不同参与者的知识和经验提升到主题专家的知识和经验，以便开发的任何创新都将导致资源节约并满足社区需要。该团队的社区合作伙伴是开发和实施新模式的领导者，这些模式旨在扩大基于循环经济的解决方案的影响。在整个规划活动中，将强调公正、公平、多样性和包容性对项目循环经济框架的重要性。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

A research network organized around the goal of creating and implementing circular economy solutions could address growing social, economic, and environmental impacts facing regional systems. Using a case study based upon the city of Chicago and its surrounding urban-rural linkages, research network planning will explore the underlying system structures and interactions that give rise to unsustainable resource consumption and waste generation. The planning will also identify potential solutions grounded in the emerging field of circular economy. The planning team will engage interdisciplinary researchers and non-academic partners in a process to co-create a research agenda for transforming regional systems towards circular economy. The group also will explore convergent research mechanisms for the deep integration of knowledge, methods, tools, and expertise from diverse perspectives that can advance the study of regional circular economies. Finally, the team will devise a collaborative platform on which the scientific community and key stakeholders can share knowledge, translate findings, and enhance diversity and engagement.A planning activity will be undertaken to analyze how different actors in a regional circular economy affect the stocks, flows, depletion and regeneration of various types of capital, and how explicit identification of these flows might shape potential innovations. New thinking, technologies, and business models will be explored to tackle the circular economy challenge from the front end of the supply chain by re-designing products and developing resource sharing models and from the back end by closing material loops. The creation of circular economy business opportunities, especially in marginalized urban and rural communities, will be addressed through convergent approaches encompassing multi-capital flows, data science, and public policies with participatory co-design methods. This approach elevates the knowledge and experiences of diverse participants to that of subject matter experts so that any innovations developed will result in resource conservation and will meet community needs. The team's community partners are leaders in developing and implementing new models that seek to broaden the influence of circular economy-based solutions. Throughout the efforts of this planning activity, the importance of justice, equity, diversity and inclusion to the project's framing of circular economy will be emphasized.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.