Circular Material Valuer Curriculum — Participatory Knowledge for the Circular Economy

GIG presents the citizen science initiative ”Circular Material Valuer Curriculum – participatory knowledge for the circular economy”. It is an open investigation about concrete practices of material assessment for circular systems, with a particular focus on the enabling conditions for an increased reuse of materials.  

The project, supported by the Hans Sauer Foundation, kicks off in March 2025 and is managed by Felipe Fonseca. Through 6 months it will co-design educational resources by engaging with experienced actors in the fields of circular economy, zero waste, right to repair and others. It will conduct fieldwork with nonprofits in Berlin, makerspaces and innovation hubs in the Global South. 

The Circular Material Valuer is envisioned as a new role for professionals who decide how to better divert reusable goods and materials from the waste stream through repairing, upcycling, adapting and recirculating. By combining material, social, economic and environmental considerations, professional Material Valuers can contribute to reducing the environmental and economic impact of waste in cities and regions around the world. The core of this proposal is building the first open-source collaborative Curriculum to educate Material Valuers in Germany.

The curriculum will support the training of these new professionals through exploring the skills, experience and sensibility necessary to extend the lifespan of the growing volume of goods discarded or kept unused. All research data and ongoing outputs will be published with open licenses. The project plans a collaborative development of a dissemination strategy and the documentation of the project in repositories, e.g. the GIG website and Re-use City Wiki.

The project activities include a review of prior research, reframed under the perspective of professional Material Valuers and the recruitment of participants, locally in Berlin and within members of the GIG network. Also online participatory workshops take place which will explore pathways for developing the curriculum and data structure. The focus is on collaborative planning of research design and exchange in online groups as well as collaborative creation of a final curriculum with participants, project partners and members from GIG. Discussions and digital expansions will be documented in public repositories with open licenses.