Circular Economy Solutions for Microplastics: Indo-Finnish Scientific Collaboration for Innovation

The purpose of this joint initiative is to build a large-scale research and innovation cooperation and network between Finnish university partners and IITs in India to study the problem of microplastics and how to address it with scientific techniques and circular economy approaches from both Finland and India. At this moment, the project has a research cooperation between UEF, TAU and Kuopio Water Cluster from Finland, and IIT Delhi, IIT Guwahati and IIT Dharwad from India. In terms of network, the aim is to gradually expand this to include other universities and research units in Finland and other IITs in India. Studying microplastics is topical in both India and Finland. The network also intends to broaden collaboration with practitioners in innovation clusters, public organizations, private companies, and non-profit organizations, for identifying case studies and co-creating knowledge with experts on social and environmental sustainability in circular plastics economy.