Transformation Towards Circular Food Systems

Melkonyan-Gottschalk is Professor for Sustainability and Socio-Technical Transformation at Clausthal University of Technology with focus areas in Environmental Economics, Circular Economy, Sustainable Supply Chains and Logistics/Mobility, as well as in Transformation of Urban Regions. Before she took on this professorship, she was Scientific Director of the Center for Logistics and Traffic at the University of Duisburg-Essen, and international consulting expert in the NASA-funded Project on Land-use and Land Cover Changes in South Caucasus, in frames of which she acted at visiting Professor at Oklahoma University. Within the frames of the projects ILoNa "Innovative Logistics for Sustainable Lifestyles", CONUS- "Competence Network of Industrial and Rural Interlinkages", PRIMA-funded ImPULSe "Innovative Citrus By-Products Supply Chain in Mediterranean Area" she and her team carried out sustainability assessments throughout the entire value chain of the modern services for stationary and online commerce, while at the same time considering new business models, like sharing and circular economy, drafting transformation pathways along the entire supply chains. Through the projects on "Economic Assessment of Environmental Impact", funded by NASA; "Climate Mitigation and adaptation strategies" for the cities of Duisburg and Essen, "Essen - Green Capital City of Europe, 2017" as well as Mercator Foundation funded project "NEMO - New Emscher Mobility", Prof. Melkonyan-Gottschalk is working with local governmental authorities, as well as industrial partners to develop collaborative decision support systems for sustainability transition strategies.

Prof. Melkonyan-Gottschalk has completed her habilitation (Venia Legendi) on Climate Change Influences on Economy.  She received her PhD at the University of Duisburg-Essen, on the topic "Statistical Analysis of Long-Term Air Pollution in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany". Her Master Thesis was related to mathematical modeling in Macroeconomy, completed at the Yerevan State University, Armenia. Prof. Dr. Melkonyan-Gottschalk has published more than thirty scientific publications and five monographs.

Denis Daus is Researcher and Project Coordinator, currently coordinating an international and interdisciplinary research project at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany, focusing on innovations through circular supply chains and sustainable development in the Mediterranean region. His professional path has included roles as a Researcher in supply chain development and strategy at the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics, Germany, where he contributed to international and German research and industrial projects on digitalization in sustainable supply chain management. Additionally, Mr. Daus has been involved in teaching and research at TU Dortmund University, Germany, specializing in circular economy and sustainability in supply chains, while supervising bachelor and master theses. Through exchange programs at Chiang Mai University (Thailand), Milwaukee School of Engineering (USA), and a work placement in Singapore, Mr. Daus concluded his studies with two Bachelor (B.SC., B.Sc.) and two Master (M.Eng., M.Sc.) degrees, focusing on logistics engineering, international business, and supply chain management.

Chapter 1: Introduction.- Chapter 2: Sustainable, resilient and circular Food Supply Chains.- Chapter 3: Best cases in sustainable farming practices.- Chapter 4: Technology Adoption and Advanced Data Analytics.- Chapter 5: Logistics in Sustainable Food Supply Chains.- Chapter 6: Innovation potential of circular supply chains: new business models and their scalability.- Chapter 7: Conclusion. The way forward, outlook and policy recommendations.