Overcoming industry boundaries, using residual materials and optimizing value chains - this is INGRAIN's declared goal for the next six years. The WIR! alliance plans to initiate an innovation-based regional structural change by synergistically utilizing the innovation potential of a bio-based "circular economy", which has hardly been addressed to date. The basis for this is the networking of the strong agricultural, textile and food industries in the region around Germany's westernmost district, which is unique in this combination in Germany.
The project consortium, consisting of WFG Heinsberg, RWTH Aachen University with the Institute of Textile Technology (ITA) and the Chair of Information Management in Mechanical Engineering (IMA), The Hochschule Niederrhein with the Competence Center Microbiology & Biotechnology and Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences with the Faculty of Life Sciences, was able totogether with more than 50 corporate partners from the practical application process, successfully submitted an application and received approval for six years of funding of up to 15 million euros at best for activities to establish a bio-based circular economy.