By Merle El-Khatib
29 Jan 2026
Our oceans are sources of life, crucial transport routes, and essential to global food provision, and they are under enormous pressure from global climate change and human activity. Resource scarcity and environmental pollution demonstrate that existing economic models need to be transformed and complemented by more sustainable solutions, not only here in Europe, but worldwide. In Bremen, new concepts are being developed that combine sustainability and technical innovation and point a possible way toward a more sustainable future: the Maritime Circular Economy.
Within the framework of the U Bremen Research Alliance (UBRA), the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT) and the University of Bremen, together with other researchers from materials sciences, environmental technology, social and economic sciences - as well as representatives from business and politics - have laid the foundation for the promising application for a new Leibniz Science Campus on Maritime Circular Economy (LSC-MCE). The proposed science campus aims to generate new ideas and solutions that could fundamentally change the way we produce, conserve resources, and interact with the marine environment.
UBRA as catalyst for a more sustainable marine future
With its maritime tradition, strong knowledge landscape, and innovative corporate culture, Bremen has the ideal conditions to play a decisive role in bringing about this transformation. The proposed science campus could effectively harness and combine these strengths and opportunities, making Bremen a hub for maritime sustainability and innovation - with potentially positive international impact and role model function.
The U Bremen Research Alliance (UBRA) decisively advanced this vision with its kick-off conference on the Maritime Circular Economy in summer 2025. If funding as a Leibniz Science Campus is secured, joint research and development on the topic will create a platform for activities investigating the most pressing questions: How can maritime material cycles be closed? How can ships, ports, and coastal regions be made more sustainable and resource-efficient? And what sustainable economic prospects and innovation models can emerge from this?
The Maritime Circular Economy brings together social and ecological goals, technology and economic innovation, and examines how, for example, materials from ships or offshore energy plants can be recycled in an environmentally friendly and compatible manner. It also addresses the need for biodegradable materials and advances in digitalisation and technology to make material flows more transparent, efficient, and manageable. The interest to participate and engage with this topic was high, resulting in the establishment of a strong and diverse network of stakeholders with a wide variety of expertise. The vision: to jointly initiate a blue-green transformation that brings collaborators together through an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary exchange.
Think global, act local
But the initiative does not end there. It also specifically discusses local and internationally relevant training and funding programmes, as well as international cooperation and partnerships, which are intended to anchor scientific output in real-world cooperation and capacity development. In this way, research and innovation intertwine, creating opportunities for practical applications and tangible local relevance.
In Bremen, this could lead to the development of important structures which, if successfully implemented, could be adopted internationally and hopefully contribute to meaningful change and the achievement of social, ecological and economic objectives - particularly in terms of creating fair value chains, exchanging of knowledge and expertise, and cooperation on an equal footing.
The close alignment with current key political strategies - from the National Circular Economy Strategy (2024) to the Blue Economy Initiative and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - is especially promising in this regard. Bremen is ready to position itself at the centre of these global efforts and to demonstrate how scientific excellence and social responsibility can go hand in hand.
