Zero to Circular: Highlights from SALIENT’s Fourth In-House Workshop at UNN
Dr Engy Ghoniem (UNN) showcasing the prototype of the crash-box during the workshop “Zero to Circular: Rethinking Automotive Design for a Sustainable Future” at UNN.
On 30 April 2025, the University of Northumbria (UNN) hosted an in-house workshop entitled “Zero to Circular: Rethinking Automotive Design for a Sustainable Future”, marking the fourth workshop held during the SALIENT project’s lifetime. The main objective was to engage future engineers with the EU’s vision for sustainability and to highlight the key role that EU-funded projects play in advancing greener technologies.
The in-person event was free to attend and featured tailored educational sessions for PhD students, focusing on a stepwise methodology for conducting Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and integrating it into their academic research.
Attendees of the workshop “Zero to Circular: Rethinking Automotive Design for a Sustainable Future”.
Dr Engy Ghoniem, Senior Research Fellow at UNN, presented key outcomes from the SALIENT project, with a particular focus on the successful application of eco-design principles in the development of a lightweight, safe, and circular Front-End Structure (FES). With the support of Cidaut, a SALIENT project partner, participants also had the opportunity to view a prototype of the crash-box.
More than 22 participants attended the workshop, including professors, senior researchers, and PhD students from the Mechanical, Civil, and Physics Engineering departments. Attendees showed strong interest in SALIENT’s implementation roadmap. Discussions emerged around the integration of shape memory alloy wires into the crash-box concept, as well as performance optimisation and comparative results observed before and after crash testing.
During the workshop, attendees also had the opportunity to explore further highlights from the ZEvRa project, an EU-funded project focused on improving the circularity of light-duty Electric Vehicles (EVs) across their entire value chain.
A key takeaway from the workshop was the valuable discussion it sparked on potential academic and industrial collaborations with SALIENT partners.
SALIENT is an EU-funded initiative focused on the development of a new FES design for vehicles, which is more circular, lightweight, safe and smart than available components on the market today. As the project ends in August 2025, project partners have significantly contributed to the dissemination and communication of results, both within the academic community and to the general public.
Up to now, SALIENT has demonstrated a strong commitment to collaborative knowledge exchange and innovation in the automotive sector. More than seven secondments have taken place, four in-house workshops aimed at promoting knowledge-sharing and lessons learned, and active participation in key events, conferences, and trade fairs to showcase the project’s developments.
With several final milestones still ahead, stay tuned for the latest updates as SALIENT reaches its conclusion.