MEHRCE

The Innovation Community for Reusable Packaging aims to establish reusable packaging systems as a central element of the circular economy in Germany. Reusable systems can be implemented, for example, in e-commerce, for pre-packaged food, out-of-home consumption, in system catering and the cosmetics sector. However, although reusable packaging is already well-established in the beverage and transport packaging sector, there has not yet been a comprehensive transfer to other areas of application.
The Innovation Community is responding to this challenge by facilitating systematic networking, cross-sector transfer and collaborative real-world experiments – with the aim of making reusable packaging a matter of course in all areas of life and positioning Germany as a pioneer of the circular economy in the packaging sector.

Three different transfer phases and cooperation formats are used to maximise the transfer between the members of the Innovation Community and the sectors: In the first phase, challenge owners are connected with challenge partners so they can jointly develop solutions. In the second phase, innovation contests are held in which the Innovation Community selects consortium projects. In the third phase, so-called "innovators in residence" are given the opportunity to pass on their knowledge to another organisation: Experts who have formal or informal knowledge on reusability are selected and transferred to a host organisation for a limited period of time, where their knowledge is applied to a project.

The project team is building on an existing network of over 100 companies, start-ups and NGOs that are active in the German Mehrwegverband, the alliance "Mehrweg.Einfach.Machen" and the project partners' collaboration and research projects. In order to promote cross-industry collaboration and create synergies, the MEHRCE project bundles existing initiatives, pilot projects and scientific findings. At the same time, the project team creates structures and competencies through community offerings that promote trust between cross-sector partners and enable networking.

The Innovation Community for Reusable Packaging is managed by the Wuppertal Institute and the Mehrwegverband. Kühne Logistics University and Leuphana University are further members of the management team. The Wuppertal Institute leads the operational management team and is responsible for the overall project management as well as for communication and cooperation with the funding body and the project executing organisation. This includes the coordination with the monitoring of the DATIpilot funding guideline and the exchange with other Innovation Communities. Furthermore, the Wuppertal Institute leads the mapping and analysis of community challenges for the implementation of reuse packaging and conducts focus groups for this purpose.

This community is one of a total of 20 innovation communities funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research over four years in order to gain insights into the promotion of innovation and transfer.