BERGISCHER ABFALLWIRTSCHAFTSVERBAND

Their core work

Bergischer Abfallwirtschaftsverband (BAV) is a regional public waste management authority serving the Bergisches Land area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Their core mission is municipal solid waste collection, treatment, and disposal, but their H2020 involvement reveals a strategic interest in extracting energy and resources from waste streams. In EU projects, they contribute real-world waste management infrastructure and operational data to research training networks focused on bioenergy and landfill mining, serving as a practice partner where academic concepts meet actual waste processing facilities.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

BAV's H2020 participation is concentrated in a narrow window (2015–2016 start dates), making it difficult to identify a meaningful shift over time. Their projects consistently orbit the same theme: recovering energy and materials from waste. The progression from bioenergy (BioEnergyTrain, Phoenix) to landfill mining (NEW-MINE) suggests a broadening from organic waste valorization toward mining value from legacy disposal sites.

BAV appears to be moving from waste-as-fuel toward circular economy concepts where landfills become resource deposits — a direction relevant to any consortium working on urban mining or secondary raw materials.

How they like to work

BAV never coordinates projects — they join as a participant or third party, contributing practice-side expertise to research-led consortia. With 38 unique partners across 16 countries from just 3 projects, they operate in large, diverse training networks rather than small focused teams. This profile is typical of a public infrastructure operator that provides real-world testbeds and data access rather than driving the research agenda.

Despite only 3 projects, BAV has worked with 38 partners across 16 countries — a wide European footprint driven by the large consortia typical of MSCA training networks. Their geographic reach extends well beyond Germany.

What sets them apart

BAV's value lies in being an actual operating waste authority — not a university lab or consultancy, but the public body that manages real landfills, waste collection, and treatment facilities. For research consortia, this means access to genuine waste streams, operational data, and infrastructure for pilot testing. Few public waste operators engage in EU research at all, making BAV a rare bridge between municipal waste practice and academic innovation in bioenergy and resource recovery.

Highlights from their portfolio

• BioEnergyTrain
  The only project where BAV received recorded EC funding (EUR 190,800), indicating a more substantial role in this bioenergy training network.
• NEW-MINE
  Addresses enhanced landfill mining — an emerging circular economy topic where BAV's access to actual landfill sites is a critical asset for the consortium.