Located in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, Paderborn University is a research and educational institution committed to freedom, democracy, and social values, fostering interdisciplinary cooperation and open, international collaboration.

UPB participates in Digi4Circular through three chairs: Data Management in Mechanical Engineering, Material Science, and Product Creation, contributing expertise in modelling systems, material design, and knowledge extraction.

As project coordinator, UPB leads the circular component design node in WP5, the Chair of Product Creation leads WP4 (knowledge extraction from technical documents and expert knowledge), and the Chair of Materials Science contributes to the circular material design node in WP2. UPB also ensures compliance with ethical.

EDAG is one of the world’s leading independent engineering companies. Drawing on more than 50 years of experience, its proprietary 360-degree development approach has become a hallmark of quality in the holistic development of vehicles and smart factories, spanning design, engineering, and production planning.

Within Digi4Circular, EDAG focuses on advancing automation in product development, securing and structuring expert knowledge, and enhancing life cycle assessment methods , helping ensure that circularity considerations are embedded early in engineering processes and that critical know-how is preserved and reused across projects.

Part of the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT), LKR specializes in lightweight construction, covering the full chain from material development to optimised process technologies and new structural component design. Its work combines metallurgical expertise with practical process engineering to bring innovative lightweight solutions to industrial application.

Within Digi4Circular, LKR contributes through alloy development and associated casting processes, aiming to design alloys that enable higher recycling rates while remaining industrially viable, supporting the project’s broader goal of closing material loops without compromising performance or manufacturability.

Part of the Department of Industrial Engineering (DIEF), this research group integrates mechanical and management engineering to develop sustainable technological and management solutions, spanning mechanical design, modelling and simulation, and innovative industrial technologies across sectors including road and railway vehicles, robotics, aerospace, and energy.

The group specializes in sustainability, circularity, and design for reliability and safety, supporting AI-driven LCA design and digital twin approaches to reduce carbon footprints. In Digi4Circular, UNIFI leads WP3 on circular product life cycle and environmental impact scenarios (including T3.1 and T3.3), and contributes to WP1, WP5, WP6, WP7, and WP8.

Data CoLAB is a Portuguese non-profit collaborative laboratory that brings emerging knowledge and technologies closer to market needs through data-oriented solutions, operating across the entire data value chain to support digital transformation in sectors including health and pharma, industry and maintenance, agriculture and biodiversity, and energy and communities. Its mission is to build an intersectoral ecosystem that uses data to reshape how we produce, consume, and live.

In Digi4Circular, Data CoLAB leads WP1, including data acquisition, and contributes to WP3 and WP6 by developing and validating a Digital Product Passport covering the full product life cycle.

SusDAT specializes in AI-driven decision support systems and data processing, developing intelligent cloud-based solutions that help companies and public organizations monitor, report, and respond to operational and environmental data across complex value chains. Its systems are designed to translate raw, distributed data into actionable insight for decision-makers, combining automation with domain-specific analytics.

In Digi4Circular, SusDAT develops a decision support system that applies AI methods to process collected project data and integrate it into the Information Space and Digital Product Passport, enabling more informed circularity decisions throughout the product life cycle.

EIT Manufacturing is a public-private partnership co-funded by the European Union and established in 2019, one of nine Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT). Its mission includes connecting manufacturing players and promoting talent and entrepreneurship to accelerate sustainable innovation across Europe, bringing together a growing network of leading industrial partners, academic and research institutions, and innovative startups, scale-ups, and SMEs.

In Digi4Circular, EIT Manufacturing South leads exploitation and training activities, spanning market analysis and workforce upskilling to support the digitalization of the manufacturing industry.

With a team of over 350 employees, including experts and specialists from diverse disciplines, Fraunhofer LBF actively contributes to various research divisions, including Structural Durability, Smart Structures (since 2001), Plastics (since 2012), and System Reliability. Recognizing that harsh environments can significantly affect the longevity of materials, environmental simulations are also integral to our daily operations.

Within the Digital4Circular project, Fraunhofer LBF contributes its extensive expertise in fatigue and corrosion fatigue as a project partner and leading research organisation. Specifically, the institute brings its know-how in cyclic testing and cyclic material characterisation to help develop an accelerated fatigue characterisation method.

CELSA is the parent company of Celsa Group, the largest Spanish-owned steel company and the second-largest European long-products manufacturer, distinguished by its diversification and vertical integration across the steelmaking value chain. The group’s scale and integration allow it to work closely with recyclers and end users to test and validate circular approaches at an industrial level.

Within Digi4Circular, CELSA provides data, scrap samples, and end-user feedback on end-of-life scenarios and recycling, grounding the project’s material and process innovations in real industrial conditions and practical recovery constraints.

Ferimet is a leading recovery company specializing in the recovery and treatment of ferrous and non-ferrous materials, playing a key role in connecting industrial scrap streams with viable secondary raw material markets. Ferimet SL is an affiliated entity of Celsa Group, working closely with CELSA across the steel value chain.

Within Digi4Circular, Ferimet led the gap analysis of data that could be provided for the project, drawing on its operational expertise in sorting, processing, and quality assessment of recovered materials. Working alongside CELSA, it also supplies scrap samples, recovery data, and end-user feedback on end-of-life scenarios, helping ensure that the alloys.

AMIRES (AMI) is a consulting company recognized for its European expertise in applying open innovation concepts to help bring innovative solutions to market, leveraging novel business models to ensure that promising ideas are both developed and successfully implemented across sectors. Its team combines strategic communication know-how with hands-on project management support for multi-partner European initiatives.

In Digi4Circular, AMIRES leads dissemination and communication activities, ensuring project outcomes are effectively shared with stakeholders and the wider community, while also supporting the coordinator and WP leaders with strategic guidance to ensure smooth project execution.