📋 Tender Overview
Project Information
REBOUNDLESS
Grant agreement ID: 101043931
DOI
10.3030/101043931
EC signature date
10 May 2022
Start date
1 January 2023
End date
31 December 2027
Funded under
European Research Council (ERC)
Total cost
€ 1 999 478,00
Project description
Society’s most well-intended actions to solve the sustainability challenges will not achieve the expected benefits unless ‘rebound effects’ are prevented. In car sharing systems, for example, more cars are often required to fulfil the same mobility needs due to rebound effects triggered by changes in consumer behaviour (e.g. less careful driving). And even more cars might be needed if walking, cycling or public transportation are being replaced by car sharing. In fact, rebound effects are estimated to undermine around 40 % of potential sustainability gains. The EU-funded REBOUNDLESS project will explore the rebound effect mechanisms triggered by sustainable design strategies and create simulation models and design strategies to enable the ‘reboundless’ design of sustainable systems
Objective
Society´s most well-intended efforts to solve sustainability challenges have not yet achieved the expected gains due to rebound effects, which are unintended consequences of interventions that arise due to induced changes in system behaviour.
Rebound effects are widely acknowledged, but fundamental scientific gaps hamper their prevention. REBOUNDLESS aims to develop the reboundless design theory, a paradigm shift in design science that will establish the scientific knowledge for preventing rebound effects by:
- Explaining systemic rebound effect mechanisms triggered by sustainable design strategies.
- Modelling and simulating the magnitude of rebound effects arising from design decisions.
- Enabling the design of resilient systems by means of reboundless design strategies.
The reboundless design theory will provide novel methodologies, simulation models and strategies for the design of reboundless solutions (i.e. products, product/service-systems and socio-technical systems that are resilient to rebound effects).
Building on the strong foundation of systems theory, REBOUNDLESS is uniquely positioned to bridge the interdisciplinary gap in the interplay of sustainable design and rebound effects, qualitative and quantitative models, engineering and social sciences, theory and practice.
The reboundless design theory will be the starting point of a prominent research field, with extensive applicability within and beyond sustainable design (e.g. sustainability assessment, sustainability transitions, policy-making).
Never before has there been a stronger global focus on solving the pressing sustainability challenges, but the expected positive societal impact will not be achieved unless rebound effects are prevented.
Building on my 15-year track-record on sustainable design theory and practice, REBOUNDLESS will give me the opportunity to enable the urgently needed sh
