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DICE - Digital Health in Circular Economy

21/12/2022
Dice-antwerpen
Sascha Vermeylen Panelmanager

The DICE project was launched at the beginning of October. In DICE, 20 partners from 9 countries are working together on a new concept to recycle electronic waste from (digital) health applications such as smart medication packaging. The consortium, led by Janssen Pharmaceutica, is supported through the Horizon Europe program.

The use of digital health applications is expected to increase rapidly over the next five years, with an expected annual global growth rate of almost 20% by 2027. Currently, this electronic waste mostly ends up in incinerators. This is a ticking time bomb for the environment. But these products also contain important raw materials for new medical and electronic devices if properly collected and recycled.

The project partners - research institutes, universities, living labs, waste management organisations, NGOs and companies - worked together for two years to prepare this project. The partners deployed their specific expertise for all steps in the circular ecosystem: product design, production, analysis and influencing of consumer behaviour, collection, logistics, refurbishment and recycling. Together, we are developing and testing complete circular systems for various applications, including a wearable biosensor and smart medication packaging.

In this project, LiCalab coordinates hackatons to test nudging strategies ('nudgingthons'), co-creation sessions and pilot tests with a total of about 750 citizens, patients, healthcare professionals and regional stakeholders in four countries: Belgium, Spain, Slovenia and Germany. The project started in early October and will run until 2026.

Follow the project on LinkedIn via: Circular Digital Health (DiCE project). For more information: vicky.vanderauwera@thomasmore.be

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