Add Your Value (ADIUVA), is a Strategic Partnership between three European universities (Università di Genoa, Universitat Politècnica de València, University of Aberdeen), with the participation of three industrial partners (Taverna del Vara, AIMPLAS and Pale Blue Dot Energy Limited), with complementary expertise in waste valorisation into materials and energy. The aim of the project is to train a new generation of academics and students in European High Education Institutions (HEIs), with skills capable to promote creative and sustainable solutions to current environmental challenges, relevant to the industrial realities of the different regions and countries (Italy, Spain and Scotland-UK). The multidisciplinary and international components allow transferring these skills to companies (and policy makers) that can promote a positive and long-term socio-economic impact in different European regions. Each HEI will provide with teams of, at least, five academics, with long-term expertise in different themes for waste recovery, including: (i) identification, quantification and characterisation of waste; (ii) waste-to-energy recovery; (iii) tools for waste-to-material recovery in Carbon Capture and Storage; (iv) waste-to-material recovery via water treatment. The project will then identify industrial needs/challenges on waste management, and will provide with added-value solutions. The project duration is two years, consisting on two academic cycles, with the participation of five students from each university per year (within the Chemical Engineering area). Different Training activities will be scheduled in three stages: (i) fundamentals on different themes on waste management (at each university, first three months of year); (ii) on-line assessment of interdisciplinary-transnational case studies (one month, at half-year); (iii) master thesis (with student mobility during the last second half of year, co-supervised by the HEI academics and industrial partner hosts). The project pursues a “Learn by Service” strategy by the creation of an interdisciplinary Toolkit (Intellectual Output 1), which will contain state-of-the-art know-how (knowledge and methods), and by the design and application of a Digital Platform (ADIUV-E, Intellectual Output 2), created cooperatively and shared by all partners. All the project outputs will be open to students, other associates and new potential users (academics from other universities, policy makers and public audience). The performance of Multiplier events at the different participating countries will ensure the dissemination of the project outputs at different levels (local, regional, national and international-EU), supported by the Digital Platform ADIUV-E, and the participation of partners, students and associate companies, policy makers and social entities. All these actions, will generate a project legacy beyond its duration that will result in the maintenance and expansion of the Digital Platform that contains the Toolkit (academy impact), the preparation of new cooperation proposals (academy-industry impact), and the development of patents and start-ups (generation of highly qualify and specialised jobs). Overall, ADIUVA will help valorise waste using different disruptive technologies, having a long-term industrial and socio-economic impact across different EU regions.
The first main objective pursued by all these activities is to train a new generation of academics and students in European High Education Institutions (HEIs) in a multidisciplinar and international environment, with skills capable to promote creative and sustainable solutions to current environmental challenges. Participation of companies and academics has nurtured an international and multidisciplinar work environment via networking and cooperation between all partners and associates (i.e., students, academics and industrial entities). The methodology has fostered creativity and lateral thinking by solving case studies that required a variety of competences and technologies, thus achieving ADIUVA’s second main objective. The third main objective was to disseminate the evidences of good practices and the educational strategy, which has fostered a network of academics, industrialists and policy makers who have developed pratical know-how to revalorise waste in the form of energy and materials, in the framework of their local particularities, using transnational synergies.
Add your value (ADIUVA) is framed in the context of the environmental challenge to optimise waste management. More specifically, turning waste into a resource can be a key enabler to a circular economy. The objectives and targets set in the European legislation have been key drivers to improve waste management and stimulate innovation in recycling. Improved waste management also helps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and avoid negative impacts at local level, such as, air and water pollution. A sustainable industrial development requires professionals with high scientific and technological competencies, who must be able to provide efficient solutions in technical situations in respect of environmental and economic limits. In addition, ability to communicate, teamwork, decision making and problem solving are among the main requested professional skills demanded by the companies when searching new employees.