Co-creation Hub (CcHUB) has partnered with Pan African University Life and Earth Sciences Institute (PAULESI) and De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) in efforts to foster the culture of innovation, in universities, in the circular plastic economy sector through the Circular Plastic Economy Innovation Hub (CPIEHub).

The CPIEHub, which is funded by the British Council and implemented under the Innovation for African Universities (IAU) project, seeks to partner with major industry stakeholders and experts with the aim of driving a thriving ecosystem for innovation and entrepreneurship in the circular plastic economy (waste to wealth) among students, entrepreneurs, and researchers in Nigeria. 

The hub will be set up across various campuses in Nigeria and will serve as a center for research, collaboration, and incubation aimed at accelerating transitions to a circular plastic economy and innovation by students and entrepreneurs in the circular plastic economy sector.

The Circular Plastic Innovation Hub project made the list of 24 projects selected to be a part of the British Council’s Innovation for African Universities (IAU) programme. 

In the first phase, the consortium investigated how universities can drive a thriving ecosystem to support and develop waste to wealth ventures. It also evaluated how key players can combine efforts to build capacity and strengthen the possibility of innovations in their society. Such synergies have the potential to bring about technical efficiency, and an opportunity to leverage digital transformation to leapfrog some of the most critical circular economic sectors in Africa. 

In the second phase, the consortium will leverage community participation, private sector and academic networks, as well as advisory resources from CcHUB and the other project partners to jump-start innovative thinking and problem solving with the students and researchers at PAULESI, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaira, University of Nigeria Nsukka and the University of Lagos. These universities will serve as a space for prototyping these ideas. 

CPEIHub will also identify and collaborate with relevant stakeholders, seek to understand the skills and environment needed in universities to foster innovation and entrepreneurship, and develop suitable capacity building and collaboration models for promoting innovation and entrepreneurship in the circular plastic economy.