NICER Programme CE Showcase 2023

23/05/2023

The Circular Economy Showcase is the flagship annual conference for the NICER Programme.

The 2023 Annual CE Showcase will celebrate the activity and impact of the five specialist NICER Centres and the co-ordinating CE-Hub over the first two years of the Programme. Led by the University of Exeter’s CE-Hub and encompassing the 34 HEIs involved in the NICER Programme, this year’s event will take place at Bramall Music Hall, University of Birmingham on Tuesday 23rd to Thursday 25th May. 

We will be showcasing research and activity to date, celebrating some early successes and sharing learning. We will also be sharing ways to get involved over the final 18 months of the Programme. 

The three-day event will be structured into 6 half-day plenary sessions as below. For the full event programme, including details of speakers and panel sessions, please see the Delegate Information Pack HERE.

PROGRAMME 

Tuesday 23rd May 

09:30 – 12:30 – Circular Economy Hub 

13:30 – 16:30 – Centre for Technology Metals (Met4Tech) 

Wednesday 24th May 

09:30 – 12:30 – Centre for Circular Metals (CircularMetal) 

13:30 – 16:30 – Centre for Mineral-based Construction Materials (ICEC-MCM) 

Thursday 25th May 

09:30 – 12:30 – Textiles Circularity Centre (TCC) 

13:30 – 16:30 – Centre for Circular Chemical Economy (CircularChem) 

 

In addition to the main programme of each CEC’s session, we will be running two cross-disciplinary lunchtime panel sessions featuring Innovate UK funded projects, which we encourage you all to attend. These are an opportunity explore the projects and their learning and discuss key themes along with an opportunity to network.

Day One 12:40-13:20

Decision-Making Tools: Learning from the Innovate UK projects

This lunchtime panel and discussion session will feature inputs from SME-led NICER projects (including representatives from Minviro, Twist, Tech-Takeback and QSA) on the cross-centre theme of how decision-making tools can help evaluate and drive circularity. Join us for insights and discourse on topics such as:

  • Where do we get all the data from?
  • How do we handle qualitative and quantitative information?
  • How do you get non-specialists to use the tools?
  • Which metrics should we be using? Is Life Cycle Analysis enough, or too much?

Day Two 12:40-13:20

Reusing Materials from the Built Environment: Learning from the Innovate UK projects

This second lunchtime panel and discussion session will feature inputs from SME-led NICER projects (including representatives from the Association of Sustainable Building Products, CCell, Reusefully, Pennog and Heyne Tillett Steel) on the cross-centre theme of how to effectively re-use materials from the built environment. Join us for insights and discourse on topics such as:

  • Do we need more secondary material exchanges, or more material hubs?
  • How could we track materials in the built environment?
  • How do we balance the long timescales of buildings with effective business models?
  • How do we assess the residual value in the assets and materials?

 

Ticket registrations have now closed. We apologise for disappointing those who did not manage to get tickets, but look forward to welcoming to you to next year’s Showcase in 2024.