bergisch.kompetenz

Bergisches Kompetenzzentrum "Kreislaufwirtschaft":
Development of circular economy expertise in manufacturing companies

Project objective

The state of North Rhine-Westphalia faces the challenge of reorganising its economy in line with sustainable development. Its regional diversity offers potential here. Each region is characterised by its own strengths, challenges and potential. This is where the Regio.NRW funding programme comes in. The aim is to successfully shape transformation processes with a view to the specific profiles of the regions and to establish North Rhine-Westphalia as a pioneer of an environmentally friendly and resource-conserving economy. The strongest sector in the Bergisch city-triangle is the metalworking and metal processing industry, which accounts for more than 50% of regional turnover. The Bergisch Competence Centre therefore focuses on the "circular economy" and develops circular economy skills in manufacturing companies.

As the Chair of Work, Organizational and Business Psychology and transzent , we are particularly interested in relevant key competencies such as system understanding, transferability and ethical and innovation-oriented leadership, which are essential for the design and management of circular economic systems in almost all areas of analysis, planning and execution in teams, individual employees, managers and management. Such competences are explained in Julius Kuhl's (2000) personality model via four functionally different, dynamic and interacting personality systems (see figure), which forms the basis for our project. This model is particularly relevant for the promotion of competences in the circular economy, as it not only includes manual, conceptual and economic skills, but also integrates intrinsic motivation, creativity, analytical and strategic thinking as well as communication skills and the development of a vision (purpose). In collaboration with the project consortium, we aim to develop and test concepts to teach and promote these key competences.

Project consortium

Industrial companies:
Muckenhaupt und Nusselt GmbH & Co KG, P.F. Freund & Cie GmbH, Bauer & Böcker GmbH & Co KG

Training providers:
Technische Akademie Wuppertal e.V., Beck und Consorten GmbH

Research partners:
University of Wuppertal (Chair of New Manufacturing Technologies and Materials, Institute for Product Innovations, Chair of Work, Organizational and Business Psychology, UniService Transfer, Start-Up Center), Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy gGmbH, Collaborating Centre on Sustainable Consuption and Production gGmbH, FGW Forschungsgemeinschaft Werkzeuge und Werkstoffe e.V., Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT

Project management:
Neue Effizienz gemeinnützige GmbH

Project duration:
2024 - 2027

Funding body:
The "bergisch.kompetenz" project is funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF/JTF programme NRW 2021-2027). The associated funding call "Regio.NRW - Transformation" is implemented by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Protection and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (MWIKE).