Innovative Circular Economy specialisation for the Young Innovators programme

<< Background >>The world was only 9% circular in resource management according to the Circularity Gap Report of 2022, with 91% of materials used only once before being discarded. This linear model of 'take, make, use, and dispose' led to overuse of resources, habitat destruction, land use change, pollution, and significant climate impacts. This urgency inspired policymakers, businesses, and researchers to pursue a more circular approach. The circular economy (CE) aims to extend the productive use of resources through strategies that combat structural waste. Combining these strategies at various levels fosters business innovation and provides opportunities for young entrepreneurs, positively impacting resources and the climate. Frijters (2016) and Wiek (2011) highlighted the need for system thinking and system innovation to promote circularity. Schools must teach students about these approaches and the challenges of the linear economy, enabling future generations to understand how to create and maximize value. The project's main goal was to promote circular thinking in secondary education, empowering students to learn and apply strategies that increase efficiency, reduce waste, and minimize their ecological footprint.<< Objectives >>By implementing this project, we wanted to achieve the following: 1) Teaching students to contribute to stimulating circularity in their own networks and communities. 2) To build specialist knowledge feeding into important solutions for the Circular Economy. 3) To establish a significant change in how students approach complex problems.<< Implementation >>In this project we have built a toolkit. To build this toolkit we undertook the following activities: A)A teacher training handbook and framework; B)(A methodology to) develop 12 educational challenges and to engage subject matter experts related to circularity; C)5 lesson plans (one for each module) lesson plan template including a set of assessment materials. Once this toolkit is developed, we will pilot our teacher training and lesson series and organise Climathon events in two rounds with teachers and students.<< Results >>We produced 6 outputs that can be used in education for a circular economy.1.A teacher training handbook and on the circular economy, for a teacher training.2.A teacher training framework: practical training materials.3. 5 lesson modules about circular economy.4.A set of Assessment materials to test learning processes.5.A methodology to develop case-study challenges: about circularity.6.A methodology for engaging Subject Matter Experts.All materials were tested and improved in two pilot rounds in Hungary and in the Netherlands.We reached 55 teachers in teacher trainings, 942 students in lessons and 912 students in one day Climathon events.Results are uploaded on the project results platform in English, Dutch and Hungarian.