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The ongoing social and ecological crises create urgency in academia and elsewhere to devise actionable problem-solving knowledge to tackle sustainability challenges. Transdisciplinary research (TDR) represents a problem-solving methodology for sustainability problems. TDR requires researchers to get out in the real world and engage with other societal actors to jointly produce such problem-solving knowledge for research to have a societal impact. This radical process of doing “science with society” instead of “science for society” is becoming more urgent and relevant. However, a transdisciplinary (TD) researcher faces challenges: often, institutions have limited readiness for facilitating TDR, a researcher has to juggle the roles of an academic and changemaker simultaneously and needs new ways of doing science. The research process requires enough manoeuvring space to incorporate reflexivity, adaptiveness, and emergence based on the research context. The research uses case studies, interviews, reflections, and document analysis from two finished and one ongoing TDR PhDs in sustainability science and connects them with the TD literature. Based on previous and ongoing TDR by early-stage researchers (ESRs), this article identifies and discusses six TDR challenges ESRs in sustainability sciences might face.

A previous version of this work was presented at the 20th European Roundtable on Sustainable Consumption and Production (ERSCP) Conference 8?10 September 2021 hosted by Graz University of Technology in Graz, Austria. The authors would like to thank the Portuguese Ministry of Environment and Climate Action for their help during this research, the survey respondents for taking the time to answer the questions, as well as the reviewers for their constructive comments. Finally, the authors would like to thank Anne Opferkuch for proofreading and editing the final version of the manuscript. Funding Information: This research was funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 765198 and constitutes part of the outcomes of the research project CRESTING (Circular Economy: Sustainability implications and guiding progress). The authors acknowledge and thank the support given to CENSE by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology ( FCT ) through the strategic project UIDB/04085/2020 . A previous version of this work was presented at the 20th European Roundtable on Sustainable Consumption and Production (ERSCP) Conference 8–10 September 2021 hosted by Graz University of Technology in Graz, Austria. The authors would like to thank the Portuguese Ministry of Environment and Climate Action for their help during this research, the survey respondents for taking the time to answer the questions, as well as the reviewers for their constructive comments. Finally, the authors would like to thank Anne Opferkuch for proofreading and editing the final version of the manuscript. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Authors The Circular Economy (CE) is generally understood as an opportunity to transform the current unsustainable linear economic system by redesigning the way organisations provide goods and services rethinking how society consumes and uses those resources. In this context, the public sector is mainly recognised as an actor enabling the implementation of a sustainable CE through governmental interventions and policy initiatives. However, there is a lack of studies considering the public sector at an organisational level. CE in organisations includes a wide range of different practices that are important to examine in order to analyse the CE implementation process. Consequently, this study aims to characterise the current state of implementing circular practices and supporting strategies in central public sector organisations. To fulfil this aim, a questionnaire survey was sent to the organisations pertaining to the Portuguese Central Public Administration, as surveys are valuable tools to systematically collect information on various topics. The results demonstrate a relatively low level of implementation. Circular practices such as purchasing remanufactured or used items, using sharing platforms, increasing the efficiency of buildings, adopting green human resources and collaborative initiatives for circularity, and assessing and communicating about CE activities have presented low levels of adoption. At the same time, waste collection for recycling and dematerialisation practices showed good implementation levels. There is, thus, immense potential for further implementation of circularity in central public sector organisations in Portugal. This research contributes to deepening the understanding of the extent to which circular practices are embedded in public sector organisations and identifying the main implementation strengths and weaknesses. This research has the potential to help practitioners and researchers in the transition towards circularity in identifying circular opportunities in their organisations and in building a vision to further implement circularity in public sector organisations. publishersversion published

The circular economy (CE) is seen as a model of production and consumption where resource use is reduced and extended in closed-loop life cycles. Organisations have been fundamental in contributing towards CE for which limited outcomes are known from public organisations. This research aims to identify the factors influencing the implementation of CE and the strategies that support such implementation in the public sector. An organisational change management perspective was taken. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with employees from the central public sector in Portugal to gather insights. Results reveal issues such as organisational culture, CE awareness for people in public sector organisations and leadership related to areas of strategy and management, human resources, and communication and assessment as key elements to consider in shifting towards circularity for this type of organisation. This study contributes to the research that has called for an expansion of the scope of CE to include human-based issues by viewing a public organisation as a multi-dimensional system transitioning to circularity. publishersversion published

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) has been implemented around the world since the 1990s on a national scale. Current EPR structures do not address the multiple product use cycle (second hand) and across borders (transboundary trade) of electronic devices like computers, washing machines, laptops, mobile phones etc. This policy brief sketches the contours of a new format which takes the multiple cycles and border crossing features as fundamental starting point to ensure circularity and sustainability by expanding the EPR concept to Ultimate Producer Responsibility (UPR).