On 9 and 10 April 2019, at the status conference of the research focus "Plastic in the Environment – Sources • Sinks • Solutions" of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), first results from the joint research projects of the research programme will be presented. In the Kalkscheune in Berlin, representatives of the projects will present their findings and challenges as well as work on cross-cutting topics. Save the date for your participation!
In this research focus, 18 research projects with around 100 partners from science, industry, associations, and municipalities are exploring the following questions: What is the extent of plastic pollution globally, what are its causes and its effects?
The aim of the research focus is to develop and establish scientific procedures, methods, instruments, and concepts for the investigation of plastic in the environment. Overall, the programme shall
- draw a consistent picture of the overall problem and make it the basis for action internationally,
- identify, develop and implement solutions together with actors from politics, business, and society, and
- start cooperation projects to reduce the entrainment of plastic into the environment.
In total, the BMBF provides 35 million euros for the research focus, which makes the programme one of the world's largest research programmes on plastics. The joint research projects are running until 2021.
In order to support the transfer of research results into practice and the collaboration between the 18 individual research projects, there is an accompanying project called "PlastikNet", which is carried out by the Ecologic Institute and supervised by the Project Management Agency Karlsruhe (Projektträger Karlsruhe, PTKA). PlastikNet facilitates networking between the joint research projects through conferences and theme-specific workshops and is involved in a cross-project-oriented synthesis of research results. In addition, the overall social and political impact of the research projects is to be increased through transfer activities.
