Under the Incubation Forum for Circular Economy in European Defence (IF CEED) managed by EDA, about 30 European experts discussed how to improve the circularity of military products through better data sharing within supply chains.
Based on the initial assessment of challenges for the use of data to improve circularity in the defence sector, experts from EDA participating Member States, industry and research and technology organisations met in three thematic sessions in the final trimestre of 2022 to focus on the IF CEED Project Circles “Waste Framework Directive - Article 9(1)(i)” and “Circular Data”:
- Legal aspects: Experts exchanged information and views on a wide range of applicable legal and regulatory provisions, from export control rules to intellectual property and cybersecurity requirements. They also shared lessons learnt from the implementation of the ‘SCIP’ (Substances of Concern In Products) database.
- Trust and protection of information: The main topics were the traceability of materials and products, third party verification, data storage aspects and implementation of the “need-to-know” concept in access to data.
- Handling of large data volumes: Experts discussed high-level requirements for data formats and interoperability. They also addressed the standardisation aspects and reviewed some key tools and infrastructure for data exchange and storage.
This series of meetings has resulted in an agreed diagnosis of data sharing opportunities to foster circularity. The main basic requirements for the defence sector have so been consolidated and will be completed by also considering the specificities of the different military product categories.
The Incubation Forum for Circular Economy in European Defence (IF CEED) is co-funded by the European Union (under the LIFE programme) and the Luxembourg’s Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs - Directorate of Defence.
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