M-SPIRE: one of two UMN-affiliated projects named as finalists in NSF Regional Innovation Engine Competition

M-SPIRE, led by Prof. Marc Hillmyer, has been named as a finalist in the NSF Regional Innovation Engine Competition. M-SPIRE plans to accelerate research and translation activities to reimagine the plastics industry. Over the 10-year grant period, M-SPIRE would become a comprehensive growth engine that deploys technologies, businesses and jobs to improve local economies and elevate communities while solving a grand societal challenge. The project’s diverse coalition of participants are committed to build a plastics future that is economically robust, sustainable and benefits the environment. 

Read the official UMN News release

Sustainable plastics must be the future, and M-SPIRE will drive innovation in this area by promoting an ecosystem to broadly facilitate translation of new technologies that promote a circular plastics economy to the benefit of all,” said Hillmyer. “M-SPIRE has set in motion a sustainable plastics ecosystem with manufacturers, citizens, scientists, educators, entrepreneurs and government all actively involved. By engaging stakeholders across the lifecycle of plastics our Engine will ignite the growth of a circular plastics economy nationwide.”