Citisystem: learning about circular economy in Belgium

Citisystem celebrates the third interregional meeting in Mechelen, Belgium

The Citisystem project, which promotes the circular economy of cities, hold its third interregional meeting in Mechelen (Belgium) between April 24th and 26th.

All the partners presented the latest updates on their regions’ circular bio-economy and bio-waste management together with some relevant data regarding food waste (a third of the food produced is not spent) and actions to promote circularity and waste management in the domestic sphere.

From the CERCA system, IRTA presented the LIFE INFUSION project: the aim is to convert the liquid fraction of the digestate from the treatment of biowaste at waste management plants in the Barcelona area into sustainable water through the removal of ammonium.

The city of Mechelen, which is amongst the partners of the Citisystem project, explained its transition towards a greener and more sustainable city in recent years and offered a tour to show the results.

Together with the meeting, partners and entities attended the Bio-Based City, a bio-economy market to explore ongoing circularity initiatives, and the Mechelen Climate Conference, and also visited examples of good practices around the city.

Moving towards circularity

In the European Union, between 118 and 138 million tonnes of bio-waste are generated each year and only 40% is effectively recycled into high-quality compost and digestate. The fraction of bio-waste plays an important role in the transition to the circular economy, especially if we consider that up to 50% of municipal solid waste is organic.

 

 

Narcís Monturiol Awards recongise five CERCA system researchers

The Narcís Monturiol medals have been awarded since 1982 and recognize people and entities that work for the development of science and technology.

The catalan government has honored ten researchers with the Narcís Monturiol Medal for the scientific and technological merit and this year five of the awardees are part of the CERCA system.

The awards, which were established in 1982 and are named after the inventor Narcís Monturiol, recognize people and entities that contribute to the development of science and technology.

And the prizewinning CERCA researchers are:

Jordi Alberch Vié, doctor of medicine, director of the research group of the Clinic Foundation for Biomedical Research-August Pi Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute (FRCB-IDIBAPS). He is an international reference in the study of the pathophysiology and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.

Emilio Palomares Gil, current director of the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ) and ICREA researcher, carries out studies related to the field of energy.

Ana Isabel Pérez Neira, graduate in Electrical Engineering and director of the  Telecommunications Technological Center of Catalonia (CTTC). Her research is linked to the field of signal processing for communications and multi-antenna signals.

Petia Radeva, graduate in Applied Mathematics and principal researcher of the Medical Imaging Lab (MiLab) of the Computer Vision Center (CVC). She has focused her research in the fields of computer vision.

Gustavo A. Slafer, agronomist engineer and senior researcher at the AGROTECNIO Center. He studies the physiology of crop yield and their development processes.