Development of A Digital Collaboration Platform for Hubs For Circularity
PhD candidate: Hisham Afash
Industrial Symbiosis (IS) refers to collaborations where industries exchange resources such as energy, water, or by-products, allowing the output of one process to become the input of another. Through these exchanges, IS improves resource efficiency, reduces waste, and lowers environmental impacts while creating economic value. Consequently, IS is increasingly recognised as a pathway for advancing Circular Economy. However, implementing IS remains challenging. Establishing symbiotic exchanges requires coordination among multiple stakeholders, reliable information on material and energy flows, and alignment of environmental and economic objectives. Organisations are often reluctant to share operational data, and stakeholders frequently lack tools to evaluate potential collaborations before implementation. Digitalisation offers opportunities to address these barriers. Digital Collaboration Platforms (DCPs) can support information exchange and collaboration between stakeholders involved in IS networks. However, many existing platforms focus mainly on identifying potential synergies and lack frameworks that support early-stage assessment of symbiotic opportunities and their environmental implications. This PhD project addresses this gap by designing a reference architecture for IS-oriented Digital Collaboration Platforms and developing DigitalH4C, a prototype platform within the H4C initiative. The platform integrates Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Digital Twins (DTs) to evaluate environmental impacts and simulate IS scenarios. The research follows a Design Science Research approach, involving iterative design, demonstration through case studies in circular hubs, and stakeholder evaluation
