Circular Production (CiPro)

The "Circular Production" (CiPro) initiative is an internal, informal, 3-year project structure to which all faculties of the university have access. The purpose of the initiative is to pool expertise and sharpen the research profile of production engineering at the University of Stuttgart in the sector of creating circular and sustainable production value chains. The Stuttgart Research Initiative (SRI) CiPro was launched at the University of Stuttgart with the Rectorate resolution of 13 June 2023 in order to pool joint research interests, possibly also with external research partners in this field, across faculties and to make the University of Stuttgart's strategic goals in this area visible.

"Internationally and nationally networked, interdisciplinary research into methods and concepts for the holistic, resource-efficient recycling of all products, from their design and materiality, through production and (cascaded) use to end-of-life and the reuse or recycling of materials."

• Development/research of multi-criteria production strategies under the aspects of sustainability, utilising existing and future material cycles
• Stronger cooperation with materials scientists at the University of Stuttgart and other universities to develop innovative material composites or systems
• Development of new types of production processes with target value-added mechanisms such as sustainability indicators
• New developments of production systems and plants under the strict conditions of material cycles and product sustainability
• Sustainable sourcing strategies in volatile supply chains for resource-conserving, material cycle-orientated production
• Development and use of artificial intelligence methods to increase sustainability and resource efficiency in production
• Supplementing the teaching content of the production technology research institutes in the SRI and doctoral topics in the GSAME graduate school

Research line 1: Optimisation of value chains in production (headed by Prof. R. Schulz, Fac. 7)

Research line 2: Use of AI methods in sustainable production (headed by Prof. M. Huber, Fac. 7)

Research line 3: Circular and sustainable production / development of end-to-end concepts for the recycling of products (headed by Prof. A. Sauer, Faculty 4; Prof. M. Liewald, Fac. 7)