Opportunities, hurdles, solutions
More than 400 guests attended the festive gathering at St John's Church in Magdeburg. The topic of the evening: the circular economy. The participants in the panel discussion agreed that the circular economy offers enormous economic potential - but only if it manages to catch up internationally in terms of science and technology over the next two to three years, and if the right groundwork is laid.
In his speech, Heiko Mohrs called for further cuts to bureaucracy.
© David Ausserhofer/ MPG
To the point
Economic potential: The circular economy offers great economic potential if scientific and technological progress is made in the next two to three years.
More innovation: Max Planck President Patrick Cramer emphasises the importance of free and creative research for sustainable solutions and proposes doubling the number of spin-offs by the end of the legislative period.
Finding solutions: Scientists discuss the challenges and hurdles involved in scaling up carbon cycles in plastics production and involving all stakeholders.
Support for start-ups: Start-ups could contribute innovative solutions to the circular economy, but often need easier access to capital.
Lower Saxony's Science Minister, Heiko Mohrs, opened the Plenary Assembly on Wednesday evening, 25 June 2025, in his new role as Chair of the Joint Science Conference of the Federal and State Governments (GWK). In his address, he praised the improved collaboration between federal and state governments through the GWK and highlighted the reduction of bureaucracy as a strategic priority for German research policy under the new government in Berlin. He reminded the audience that, while there's concern over developments in the USA, academic freedom is under even greater threat in countries like China and Russia - and that it is the responsibility of both politics and science to safeguard this freedom in Europe and ensure its place in public life.
Patrick Cramer betonte die Bedeutung freier Wissenschaft in Deutschland und der Welt.
© David Ausserhofer/ MPG
Max Planck President Patrick Cramer picked up the thread on academic freedom: "The attacks on science aren't just about science. They're about something deeper. When female professors are intimidated, international students sidelined, and education and critical thinking systematically suppressed - at the heart of it, it's about the erosion of democracy." In light of this, he called for strong support for the Transatlantic Program - not just from the new Ministry of Research, represented at the event by State Secretary Rolf Jungk, but also from within the research community itself: "Let's make the Transatlantic Programme a shared success. Bring it to your institutes. Find new opportunities to collaborate. Join forces - and open up space for young talent. And please: start recruiting now, including early succession appointments. "Innovation creates prosperity, that is undisputed, said Cramer. However, he pleaded for innovation not to be a blind premise, but to research freely - with creativity and integrity - only then would
Cramer underlined that innovation drives prosperity - that much is uncontested. But he also stressed that innovation must not become a blind pursuit. It has to be rooted in free, creative, and responsible research - only then can genuinely new ideas emerge. That's how science delivers forward-looking solutions. As the Max Planck motto puts it: "Knowledge must precede application." With revenues of around €570 million, Max Planck Innovation - alongside Fraunhofer - is one of Germany's leading technology transfer institutions. Still, the MPG could do more, Cramer said, proposing to double the number of annual spin-offs to 20 by the end of the current legislative period. "If we want to secure the livelihoods of future generations, there's no way around the circular economy," he said, shifting the focus to the evening's central panel discussion.
"If we want to secure the livelihoods of future generations, there's no way around the circular economy," he said, shifting the focus to the evening's central panel discussion.
Panel discussion Circular economy as the key to the future
Lively discussion: Susanne Kadner, Dietmar Harhoff, Kai Sundmacher and Ralf P. Thomas explore the opportunities and challenges of a genuine circular economy (from left to right). The discussion was moderated by Susanne Schäfer, editor at business magazine brand eins (centre).
© David Ausserhofer/ MPG
The urgency of thinking and operating in cycles has never been greater - it's no longer a choice, but a necessity. That's how Susanne Schäfer, editor at the business magazine brand eins, opened the conversation.
Kai Sundmacher, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems, introduced innovative approaches from the scientific world. He is researching carbon cycles to replace crude oil - a fossil raw material - in the production of plastics. Even though the concept works in the lab, a number of practical challenges and hurdles remain: how can such processes be scaled up? How can all aspects be considered, and every relevant stakeholder brought on board? What do viable, profitable, and fully circular business models look like?
Susanne Kadner, Co-Founder of CIRCULAR REPUBLIC and Director at UnternehmerTUM, sees start-ups as a source of promising solutions - but bureaucracy, she noted, often stifles their creativity. Ralf P. Thomas, CFO of Siemens AG - a key enabler of the circular economy in several fields - agreed that start-ups need easier access to capital. In his view, large companies bear responsibility for scaling, research should act as the idea engine, and SMEs are crucial to putting solutions into practice. Opinions varied on how policymakers should best support the shift - through subsidies or through tech challenges, as Dietmar Harhoff, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, framed the debate.
Still, there was a shared sense that businesses today are more motivated to engage with circular models, partly due to the crises of recent years. It's about reducing dependence - on volatile raw material prices and on fragile supply chains shaped by geopolitical tension. The panel also agreed on the importance of speed. Momentum is essential if we are to realise the circular economy's vast potential. Done right, it could become a genuine game changer - for both the German and European economies.
