Introduction

This is a proposal for leading the proposed Centre on Digital Circular Economy for Sustainable Development Goals (DCE-SDG) (focussing on Business, Society and Nature). This proposed developmental project is based on preliminary understanding of the centre's mission, vision and objectives considering following five key pillars (P1-P5). Further details have been presented in the subsequent pages.

Pillar1: Establishing collaboration and engagement with internal colleagues in the view of building on and extending their current research activities by creating thematic working groups, to create a collegial environment of opportunities and knowledge exchange for colleagues and early-career researchers.

Pillarc2: Developing trans-national collaboration and sustainable partnerships with developed and developing nations (institutions) to enhance the visibility of the activities, creating research impact and grant applications.

Pillar3: Establishing leadership by championing nascent yet emerging research themes, remaining flexible and responsive to evolving global needs (funding bodies and policy makers such as UGC, DST, United Nations Grand Challenges, Indian Commission, International funding authorities, and World Economic Forum)

Pillar4: Creating pathway to impact by disseminating research outcomes for students, Small and Medium sized enterprises (SMEs), and academic practitioners (through P1, P2 and P3)

Pillar 5: Making a positive impact in terms of the university world rankings through strategic management of academic and public dissemination, teaching excellence and community engagement from P4.

The Circular economy [CE] concept is restorative and regenerative through advocating reduce-reuse-recycle of materials, compared to the traditional linear ‘take, make, dispose’ model, which uses vast quantities of non-renewable resources. India is one of south-east Asia’s fastest-growing economy, and its sustainable growth is curtailed by environmental degradation, plastic waste, depletion of natural resources, and high carbon emissions. CE may present a sustainable solution to part of these challenges resulting from current linear economic model in India and whole world.

CE philosophy often has social barriers limiting scalability and adoption among businesses, in any economy. One such barrier identified is lack of awareness, skills and experience among the workforce, which is also echoed by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reports, resulting in lack of strategy and actions to adopt CE.

Therefore, the overarching goal of this interdisciplinary and transnational partnership is to create a CE knowledge hub facilitating CE adoption in India through training businesses (95% of them being SMEs), policy makers, higher education institutions, researchers, conducting research to strengthen cooperation between all beneficiaries, and to build skilled workforce.

Developing capabilities to implement CE will create new skilled jobs and increase employability which is linked to UN Sustainable Development Goal [SDG8], facilitating economic growth. CE will also alleviate environmental issues caused due to carbon emissions, by reducing the use of virgin materials, and eliminating waste in production, by converting them into renewable energy synchronized to SDG 2, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, and 13. Though, CE has a huge implications on UN SDGs, we are seeking to contribute to all 17 SDGs through our expertise and cross-cutting research in this domain.

Objective

The aim is to create the first CE knowledge hub in India that will strengthen regional, national and transnational partnerships between industries and academia through the following objectives.

• Objective 1. Conducting evidence-based research with beneficiaries – academic researchers, industry practitioners, and policymakers to systematically align the capacity-building needs, policies and roles of each beneficiary to facilitate transition from linear to circular economy for UN SDGs.
• Objective 2. Designing and developing virtual support centre for the hub to facilitate leadership in the thematic area through knowledge co-creation, capacity building, and strengthening partnership with beneficiaries.
• Objective 3. Designing training packages for academic researchers and industry practitioners for facilitating CE adoption within SMEs’ supply chains through upskilling talent, creating a capability cluster, and enhancing the International reputation of the hub.

What do we do?

• Unite top experts along the entire chain
• Increase interaction with industrial and societal stakeholders
• Tune research to practice
• Answer questions independently, efficient and directly
• Innovate, fundamental as well as applied
• Generate and valorise intellectual property
• Identify, in partnership, project opportunities and financing
• Train, consult and educate

Self-sustaining business Model

• Membership fee
• Fee based training for the executives
• Organisation of seminar, workshop, summer school, outreach events
• Consulting fee
• Funding from external funders through project proposals

Membership benefits

Industry members will gain

• Access to equipment & expertise – university resources
• Help solving business challenges – university resources
• Engagement with an innovative community – at various organised events

Academic members will gain

• Interaction with other academic scientists and the business community – at various organised events
• Access to funding opportunities for industry-relevant research

Early career members will gain

• Contacts in the circular economy and sustainability oriented community
• Events specifically for early-career scientists

International members will gain

• Opportunity to make links with other members – via expertise directory
• Interaction with other academic scientists and the business community

Deliverables

In the initial times, we need some support from JGU. Though, we are also seeking to generate sufficient funds from self-sustaining business model. In this sense, the deliverables for this research centre would be measured in two phases; whose details are given as below –

Phase 1: Short term plans:

• Apply for seed funding
• Write research papers and proposals for external funding
• Engage with companies and stakeholders (local and global)
• Workshop on research impact
• Promote research collaborations (inside and outside JGU)
• Conduct regular seminars/workshops and knowledge exchange programmes
• Research summer schools
• Feedback on research ideas/papers for JGU members 
• Feedback on research ideas/proposals for external funding for JGU members

Phase 2: Long term plans:

• Skill training and vocational programmes,
• Secure more and more external funding
• Research mobilisation group and conduct discussion on research themes led by JGU faculty regular basis
• Conduct mega conferences/workshops/seminars annual basis
• Setting up the culture for writing research proposals and taste the success in terms of top publications and school branding
• Student internship programme in the area of CE/Sustainability for SDGs
• Promote partnerships and research impact: The partnership with both developed and developing economies (different income levels according to World Bank classification) is necessary to: increase the visibility of research outputs (not just limited to manuscript citations), strengthen our research grant proposals (team formation), contribute in International grants (outside EU), special sessions by visiting scholars for students, and increase the outreach of the activities.
• Research and consultancy opportunities – partnerships with the businesses and stakeholders
• Data observatory plans like Bloomberg
• Represent JGU on editorial boards of leading ABDC journals
• Contribution to UN SDGs 2030 agenda
• Contribution to Indian Contribution to the India PM Gati Shakti Yojana
• Contribution the Indian Government – Clean, Healthy, and Digital India mission
• Contribution to the India – Waste to Wealth mission

Current Projects

• We have been awarded with 3 major research projects from ICSSR, 2022-2024, with budget 16 Lacs INR. These two projects have been awarded in collaboration with IIM Vishakhapatnam, India and MNIT Jaipur, India. We are acting as a CO-PI in both projects with details as given below:

[1] Role of Socioeconomic and Technological Factors in Adoption of Industry 4.0 Technologies in Indian Agri-fresh Supply Chains (AFSC), 2022

Prof. Sachin Kumar Mangla (in collaboration with MNIT Jaipur, India).

Budget: INR 8 Lakhs

[2] Developing socially sustainable Indian dairy supply chain from multi-stakeholders’ perspective: A bi-state firm level analysis, 2022

Prof. Sachin Kumar Mangla (in collaboration with IIM Vishakhapatnam, India).

Budget: INR 7.5 Lakhs

Funding: Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), Govt. of India.

[3]  Awarded by The Office of Research & Sponsored Programs – project entitled ”Leveraging IT and Business spanning capabilities in unlocking and designing of efficiency-centered business model in the UAE manufacturing sector”, AED 100,000, Abu Dhabi University. UAE.

Prof. Sachin Kumar Mangla – Co-PI

• We are also exploring several national and international research funding opportunities funded by different agencies, such as European Union, British Council, British Academy, Newton Fund, ICSSR, SPARC, Department of Science and Technology and Government of India, TUBITAK, GCRF, Govt of India, Turkey, National Natural Science/Social Science Foundation of China Funding – China Govt, Research Council UK, and many more.

Research Themes

This section will outline preliminary research themes which are novel and will extend the work that colleagues have already undertaken. The reason for proposing these themes are: (1) the centre needs to start working on nascent and emerging research themes which are identified as critical by UN and national policy makers; (2) centre will need to differentiate itself in the country because the topical area of sustainability is very saturated; (3) this will help the centre and OPJ colleagues to champion these themes in the global arena, further building on and extending their current research activities; (4) building on and extending the work of academics in JGU (therefore lines of research will be democratically finalized). A few of the important research themes are given as below: 

• Theme 1: Innovations and Business Models for transforming businesses from Linear economy to Digital Circular Economy for Economic, Environmental and Social Development 
• Theme 2: Circular Economy and Sustainability Performance Measurement and Audit Framework facilitating consolidated assessment of economic, socially responsible, and environmentally friendly business practices 
• Theme 3: Digital technologies (Blockchain, IoT, AI applications) that drives Circular Economy for Responsible Economic, Environmental and Social Development 
• Theme 5: Water, Energy and Food Nexus for Digital and Circular Economy for Responsible Economic, Environmental and Social Development 
• Theme 5: Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion (DEI) and Business Ethics in driving Digital and Circular Economy for Responsible Economic, Environmental and Social Development 
• Theme 6: Cross-disciplinary issues in driving Digital and Circular Economy for Responsible Economic, Environmental and Social Development 
• Theme 7: Digital Circular Economy in Entrepreneurial opportunities for Responsible Economic, Environmental and Social Decisions 

Collaborations

DCE – SDG has connections with diverse stakeholders in developing and developed economies around the world.

Impact Pathways

Academic Community: The impact will be generated through research publications in ranked 3 and 4 journals, successful research grants and most importantly delivering workshops in top conference venues, societal, national, and International levels. It is envisaged that there will be several publications within the three-year period with colleagues, and excluding my manuscripts currently under review. As already outlined in this proposal, I will create multiple opportunities for colleagues to contribute in the ongoing grant proposals, and at the same time will be supportive to their own initiatives (not limited to peer review by International consortium, creating advisory board for proposals demonstrating a strong team), making them aware of International grants and introducing them to consortium members relevant to the call. The research publications, successful grant applications and workshops will put the Centre and School Initiatives in the forefront of global audience, which will add to the reputation, establish leadership, and university rankings (especially QS). The work will enhance and further extend collaborations with different stakeholders, which is critical to show the impact produced by the research for building sustainable communities. During the three-period, I will actively engage with the consortium members and create opportunities for colleagues to develop special issue proposals in ranked 3 and 4 journals, which will further help to champion these areas.

Students: Our students will benefit from real-life and novel business cases (industry-view, and institutional-view) disseminated by academics who have worked on them, that will be key to developing capabilities for future and prepare for new jobs in the area (or across disciplines). The interaction with consortium members, institutions and students across the globe will enhance their personal learning experience and sharpen their ability to understand and reflect from myriad cultural perspectives opening job opportunities not just limited to a single region. The proposed themes will lead to introduction of new teaching topics programmes (Green Education) and cases (Sustainability audit) within the curriculum. This will enhance the popularity, dynamism, and demand for our courses (which is also key to global University rankings). Our students will have the opportunity to contribute to these themes (as a part of their dissertation/research papers), and also find internship opportunities within the centre (where they can be paired with an organisation in the region or globally, depending on the individual needs and qualities of the student). Subject to successful funding applications, a proportion of the research grants will be used to provide paid competitive internship opportunities for the students, so that students could immerse themselves working with both academic and business practitioners, in addition to training opportunities.   

Practitioners: For the business practitioners, I/We will engage with SMEs and policy makers, throughout the projects’ life cycle to design, validate and deliver the project outcomes, which will repurpose and transform organisational strategies that will help businesses to practice sustainability in a more effective manner. This engagement will be realised through focus groups and informal meetings, where possible (both in India and Internationally). To this end, I envisage, the centre will create a business advisory board which will be a forum for selected SMEs across the globe to interact (barring language barriers) and having oversight of the project outcomes/deliverables. Finally, training programmes developed in our project will encourage the SMEs (not just in India, but worldwide), to recruit more human workforce in green job roles, reducing gender inequality and enhancing inclusivity within the organisations. Our training programme can be a part of the employee onboarding process, which will strengthen partnership of  our institution with these institutions, clearly demonstrating the impact our centre is making regionally, nationally and globally through its continuous initiatives, and championing the significant area (sustainable practices and innovation).

** We anticipate these research themes and impact pathways will evolve, after discussion and suggestions of colleagues/ centre academic team, to facilitate their engagement and cooperation.

Centre Director

Dr Sachin Kumar Mangla,

Professor and Associate Dean,
Operations Management and Business Decision Making,
Jindal Global Business School,
O P Jindal Global University, Sonepat, Haryana, India
Email: Smangla@jgu.edu.in

Team

Prof. Ashish Dwivedi
Professor,
Operations Management & Supply Chain,
Jindal Global Business School,
O.P. Jindal Global University
adwivedi@jgu.edu.in

Prof. Rajendra Baraiya
Lecturer,
Operations Management & Supply Chain,
Jindal Global Business School,
O.P. Jindal Global University
rajendra.baraiya@jgu.edu.in

Prof. Asit Tripathy
Assistant Professor,
Operations Management & Supply Chain,
Jindal Global Business School,
O.P. Jindal Global University
asit.tripathy@jgu.edu.in