Circularity and Competitiveness

The Working Group on Circularity and Competitiveness (formerly called Global Competitiveness) covers the following activities:

In 2018, the WG contributed to the ERTRAC Strategic Research Agenda for Horizon Europe, providing the chapter called “Europe as world leader in innovation, production, and services”. The WG also organised a conference jointly with EFFRA on manufacturing needs for the automotive industry.

End of 2022, the WG name was changed from “Global Competitiveness” to “Circularity and Competitiveness” in order to address the challenges of circular economy and life cycle approach. The WG wants to work on the sustainability of supply chains and resources sovereignty of Europe, addressing circular economy, resiliency of critical resources, and substitution of fossil-based resources.

The elaboration of a new Roadmap started in 2024 and is currently in drafting. Its objective is to provide a harmonised view on the importance of Circular Economy for the automotive sector in particular and the overall road transport sector in general. It aims to identify the research needs to be tackled in the coming years, to accelerate the transformation of the automotive industry to become more circular.