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The project focuses on increasing material re-use through repair, in the sector of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE). The project aims at decreasing the amount of waste from EEE (WEEE) in NWE by increasing the rate of repair of these products, thereby extending the product life times. Within EEE, the project focuses on the following product categories (as defined in Annex I of Directive 2012/0019/EU): large household appliances, small household appliances, IT and telecommunications equipment, consumer equipment, lighting equipment, and electrical and electronic tools.

The project distinguishes itself from existing practices by focusing on an underused lever to reduce waste: empower citizens to repair broken products. It aims to harness the experience of citizens, both consumers at home and more skilled repairers in repair cafés, to collect repair solutions and make repair solutions more broadly available, thereby enabling more citizens to engage in repair, whether on their own, together (in repair centres), or with the help of professional repair services. At present, repair information is scattered. It is not being collected or presented in a structured way. The project aims to change this by developing digital support tools that capture and disseminate best practices. These will be structured in a user-friendly way, guiding users along the ‘decision tree’ toward repair (i.e. diagnosing the problem; instructing users on how to fix it; if they cannot fix it themselves, guiding users toward professional services; telling users which replacement parts are needed and where to find them; etc.).

The project’s main output is an integrated approach to scaling up citizen repair. The approach rests on developing a digital infrastructure consisting of five interconnected digital tools:

1. a support tool for repairers in repair clubs and repair centres;
2. a guidance tool for consumers in households;
3. a tool for mapping repair facilities and repair services in the participating regions and cities, with a particular focus on local commercial firms with high-quality services;
4. a tool for collecting and sharing open-source designs for 3D printing of spare parts;
5. an integrated data space that gathers all the data captured by the above tools and uses ‘big data’ analytics to deliver customised reports indicating, for example, how to improve the effectiveness of the tools based on user behaviour, or how to gear policy and business toward repair.

When completed, this will be the first integrated digital approach to repair in Europe, that will be structures around a joint open repair data platform.

To achieve this, multiple pilots and investments are envisaged. The support tool for repairers will be co-developed with at least 100 repair clubs, who will catalogue at least 10,000 images of broken and repaired items. The guidance tool for consumers will be developed alongside roughly 1000 citizens, participating in a large-scale, transnational citizen-science project aimed at monitoring their problem-solving behaviour and identifying barriers to repair. At least 100 designers, from across the participating countries, will assist with developing the tool for 3D-printing designs. To sustain the digital infrastructure beyond the project lifetime, the partners will seek to develop a viable business model, notably by developing complementary physical infrastructure (Urban Resource Centres - URC) in the partner cities. These and other pilot actions will entail investments in personnel, software development, and equipment, among other things.

• Maison du développement durable – Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve
• Gemeente Apeldoorn
• Stad Roeselare
• The Restart Project
• Repair&Share
• Delft University of Technology
• The Manchester Metropolitan University
• National University of Ireland Galway
• Association des Consommateurs Test-Achats
• Prototyping Collective
• Statik
• KU Leuven – Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
• Repair Together
• VITO
• Maakbaar Leuven