O. (Özlemnur) Ataol, PhD

2023-2024

CIRCLEcity: Children's Investigation of Resilient Circular Lifestyle and Environments in the City

The CIRCLEcity project designs a collaborative action research with children (11-12 years old) living in urban areas to co-investigate their perceptions of sustainable/unsustainable consumption behaviors and their approach to utilizing circularity in their action plans targeting their unsustainable consumption behaviors toward change in favor of sustainable development responding to SDG # 11 (sustainable communities) and 12 (sustainable consumption).

CIRCLEcity receives a grant from Children's Rights Research Fund (SWOL) and the project starts in September 2023.

2022-2023

#CircularCityChallenge: Creating a Next Generation Participatory Contest for Young People to Integrate Circularity in School Curricula

The CircularCityChallenge project will set up a pan-European competition for students aged 14-19. Through the competition, the consortium will collect submissions providing creative and novel ideas for circular city approaches. The challenge invites young people to submit their own ideas for a sustainable future in their own environment while at the same time educating them on the topic of sustainable development. This approach will have a threefold effect: (i) in researching a competition-based approach to educating functional urban design in support of circular systems and the use of nature-based solutions and design curricula for different school types and age groups, the project will improve education in schools and education for sustainable development in particular; (ii) in providing students the possibility to submit ideas on a new approach on circularity, the project will raise awareness on sustainability; and (iii) in providing fresh ideas and approaches, cities will be enabled improve their resource use and waste management strategies, business models and smart city developments for the common good. Cities will further be enabled to build adaptable future visions and adopting a circular economy strategy.