Research with impact
The Circular Economy Initiative will primarily focus on working with manufacturing supply chains initially across five key development streams:
- Fibre and textiles
- Organics
- Carbon fibre and composites
- Advanced alloys
- Energy materials
Powering innovation
Deakin has already had considerable success across all development streams including breakthroughs in areas such as new animal feedstocks, sustainable fibres, self-healing materials, PV panels, the re-purposing of alloys and solar panels.
World-class facilities
Our Waurn Ponds campus is home to the Advanced Fibre Cluster, which incorporates Carbon Nexus, the world’s only open access industrial multiscale carbon fibre production facility, as well as other outstanding facilities in fibre and material science and transformational engineering. World-class advanced characterisation and testing facilities further enhance the Circular Economy Initiative's capacity to optimise and evaluate performance across the full manufacturing and production process.
The CEI will be located within CSIRO’s industrial scale processing facility on campus to capitalise on the many synergies with existing larger scale equipment and resources. Further specialised equipment is also being positioned in the Factory to expand research capacity and accelerate the development process.
Learn more about Deakin's state-of-the-art engineering facilities
Strengthening Victoria’s economy
The Circular Economy Initiative will strengthen Victoria’s future by delivering:
- new materials, technologies and processes to help design out waste and cut the cost of waste management
- extraction of value from existing waste and development of new market opportunities, industries and employment
- regenerated and re-purposed products to prolong usage and maximise value
- streamlined access for industry to diverse capabilities and resources to generate integrated and comprehensive solutions to waste issues
- new strategic, high value research and development partnerships to enhance collaboration and industry growth
- assistance in the development of a sustainable new economy.
Building on outstanding scientific capabilities in materials, fibre, food and chemistry, the CEI will link with other strengths in engineering, supply chain optimisation, artificial intelligence and consumer and economic analysis to assist industry in creating scalable pathways to market.
Working with us
The CEI will provide a significant opportunity for industry to accelerate the development and commercialisation of advanced circular technologies and products, opening up new markets and reducing waste into the future.
Deakin University and the CSIRO have a proud history of successful partnerships with industry, community and governments through research and development, and contribute strongly to building the workforce of the future through tailored education, PhD programs, internships and work placements. Deakin and the CSIRO combined with governments to develop the $103m Australian Future Fibres Research and Innovation Centre at Waurn Ponds in 2012 and have continued to expand capacity across the full carbon fibre supply chain and move into new areas such as x-ray analysis.
Join us to drive the transition to a circular economy
If you'd like to learn more about our projects, connect with our researchers or discuss partnership opportunities, we'd love to hear from you.