CIRCONOMY® Hub

Welcome to the project

CIRCONOMY® Hub

Sustainable production, sustainable consumption and a circular economy require systemic and technological solutions, which are created in innovation networks. Fraunhofer proposes building a network of CIRCONOMY^® Hubs across Germany: These hubs are a new, agile instrument for cooperation on the basis of a shared mission and a reliable data space. They create added value regionally, nationally and internationally. In each hub, Fraunhofer institutes work with their partners in industry, science, politics and society on a mission not just to contribute to the circular economy, but to develop innovations for sovereign value cycles, climate neutrality, circularity and bioeconomy.

On this page you can read about how circularity is created out of shared values, cooperation and projects.

CIRCONOMY^® is the Fraunhofer brand for solutions, capacities and expertise for the circular economy. This brand represents shared values, strategies, target visions and, above all, innovation projects that put the great mission of “transformation to the circular economy” into practice.

CIRCONOMY^® Ticker

Building Materials and the Climate: Constructing a New Future

Under the premise that the world wants to achieve its goals for net-zero emissions from the construction sector by mid-century, there is an urgent need for action regarding the development of new models for collaboration on the decarbonization of building materials. We must pursue the following paths together:

1) Avoiding the extraction and production of raw materials by creating a circular economy

2) Shifting to circularly managed material practices through the use of ethically produced, low carbon, earth and bio-based building materials.

3) Optimizing methods to radically decarbonize conventional materials.

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Our offer

Services

Web services can be tested directly on a website. Techno-consulting helps keep innovation projects on track and successful.

Our services

CIRCONOMY^® Hubs

The concepts for the first CIRCONOMY^® Hubs are already being created, and circular ecosystems are forming. Be there as CIRCONOMY® Hubs shape the transformation.

Hubs overview

News

08.06.2026

From the research lab to bicycle production

A single drop of oil can contaminate up to 1,000 liters of groundwater. The Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films IST will demonstrate how industrial manufacturing processes can be made more resource-efficient at Lower Saxony Day 2026 on the Braunschweig Mile. The institute’s presentation will focus on the COAD® process, a plasma process developed at Fraunhofer IST for the controlled adjustment of adhesion properties on surfaces.

Press Release

18.05.2026

Blends of bio-based polyesters as a building block for replacing conventional polyolefins

New findings from the Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence Circular Plastics Economy CCPE show how commercial PBSA/PLA blends can be specifically tailored through industrial processing methods to make them suitable for flexible film applications. This opens up concrete bio-based alternatives to petrochemical plastics.

Press release

04.05.2026

Programmable Monomaterial for High-Tech Athletic Shoes

High-quality athletic shoes are usually made from a complex combination of materials. This has consequences for both production and recycling. In the ZiProMat project, Fraunhofer researchers have found another way. A sole made of programmable monomaterial performs various functions and is also made of the same material as the upper. The concept combines hightech, sustainability and recyclability.

Press Release

28.04.2026

Biological recycling of electronic waste shows great potential

Microorganisms and microalgae can be used to recover valuable metals from electronic waste – in an environmentally friendly, selective manner with potential for industrial application. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB demonstrated this in a study. At IFAT 2026, the leading trade fair for environmental technologies in Munich, IGB will demonstrate how this biological recycling works using a fixed-bed reactor.

Press release