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Project

Right to Repair: Technological and logistical opportunities for added value creation in repair services

In the context of the Interreg project Sharepair, this PhD project, embedded in the KU Leuven Life Cycle Engineering research group, will focus on repair of products as a strategy for reduced environmental impact. This subject will be tackled from several perspectives on different research levels.  The outcome of this PhD will exceed the technical objectives that are stated in the Interreg project, with as aim to come to generic insights applicable as input for government policy development and for industrial business opportunity identification. Ultimately the study should allow to advise on future EU policies with respect to the technological and economic feasibility of repair initiatives. The direct objectives of the research include a study on the different mechanisms in a business to consumer relation that today obstruct or facilitate repair and the different scenarios that can be considered for added value creation to make extended product life cycles a more evident option for manufacturers/distributors and end-users. With this comes the consideration of different innovative business model opportunities and technical bottlenecks that may be overcome by new manufacturing capabilities. These business models and innovative manufacturing opportunities will be explored and validated in close cooperation with consumer organisations, manufacturing companies and repair communities. Methodologically the study will make use of data related to ongoing efforts concerning repair and its derivatives that have already been collected or are being monitored by the different entities inside the Sharepair consortium.

Date:7 Oct 2020 →  1 Mar 2022
Keywords:Repair, Circulair economy
Disciplines:Life cycle engineering
Project type:PhD project