New GENIUS” chair: Revolution of the circular economy in Europe!

New GENIUS” chair: Revolution of the circular economy in Europe!

At the end of August 2025, a groundbreaking seminar on the circular economy took place, hosted by Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) was organized in collaboration with Arts et Métiers. As part of this event, the German-French chair “GENIUS” (Next Generation Industry for Sustainability) was launched. The main aim of this chair is to make European industry more sustainable and resilient. The founding of GENIUS is the result of 30 years of academic collaboration and a ten-year partnership in the French-German Institute for Industry of the Future between KIT and Arts et Métiers.

The chair will initially receive funding of 150,000 euros from the Franco-German University for four years, which will be supplemented by regional funds. GENIUS' work focuses on collaborative design with immersive technologies, advanced manufacturing and recycling processes, and the optimization and reconfiguration of production systems. A central focus is on the circular economy in order to make the entire life cycle of industrial products sustainable.

Focus on circular economy

The relevance of the circular economy is also clearly highlighted in the current study “Circular Economy in Germany and the EU: Positions and Perspectives”, which was carried out by the Bertelsmann Foundation was carried out in collaboration with Future Impacts. The study emphasizes that the transition to a circular economy is a key challenge and that circular economies must go beyond pure recycling.

Four central areas of action are presented in the study:

• Über Recycling hinausdenken: Eine umfassende Strategie für den gesamten Produktlebenszyklus ist erforderlich.
• Zirkuläre Bioökonomie nutzen: Biobasierte Materialien sollten fossile Rohstoffe ersetzen.
• Radikale Angebotsgestaltung: Produkte und Geschäftsmodelle müssen kreislauffähig konzipiert werden.
• Ethische Dimension einbeziehen: Die Kreislaufwirtschaft sollte sozial gerecht gestaltet werden.

Digitalization and cultural change

Digitalization is also identified as a key topic. This opens up possibilities for the traceability of materials and optimizes business processes, for example through digital product passports and platforms for second-life models. The study highlights that a cultural change is necessary: ​​politics, companies and society must work together to promote sustainable concepts.

It also shows that regulation, incentives and standardized framework conditions can motivate companies to implement sustainable concepts. In this context, the GENIUS chair aims to train graduates who are able to creatively design, control and further develop industrial systems.

The challenges that need to be addressed within this framework include ecological change, the resilience of production chains, technological sovereignty and digital transformation. People involved in the seminar and the establishment of the chair include eminent experts such as Dr. Paul Stief, Dr. Udo Thelen and professors Jean-Rémy Chardonnet, Volker Schulze, Ivan Iordanoff and Thomas Hirth.

In summary, it can be said that the circular economy offers both an ecological necessity and an economic opportunity that should be increasingly incorporated into the political and economic discourse in Germany and the EU in the future. The goal of the GENIUS chair and the findings of the current study have a clear focus on these urgent challenges.