Conceived by Sophie Thomas, The Great Recovery was a very successful programme to promote awareness and understanding of the circular economy and closed loop design across the manufacturing and design sectors. The programme ran between 2012 and 2016. Supported by Innovate UK and run through the RSA, The Great Recovery built networks that linked the
design community to scientists, material experts, technical start ups, manufacturers and waste and resource managers. Through a programme of practical investigations and demonstration projects, workshops, events and supporting resources, The Great Recovery brought forward a broad range of new systems and business approaches through the circular network’s collaborations.
The Great Recovery’s activities supported Innovate UK’s ‘New Designs for a Circular Economy’ competition stream that invested over £26m into cross-disciplinary teams in order to support feasibility studies to full business growth across a wide range of products and processes. A key objective of The Great Recovery was to connect different actors in the UK together, from designers, to academics, investors to manufacturers.