Spotlight on Young Researchers: Thomas Schaubroeck

 

Thomas Schaubroeck specialises in sustainability assessment of products. We speak to the Belgian national about the research he is undertaking in the framework of an Industrial Fellowship between the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) and company Tarkett; how working with industry differs from academia; and how he hopes his research can help industry steer toward a more sustainable future.

In a nutshell, who is your industry partner Tarkett and how does your research fit with the company?

“The flooring company Tarkett and other industries strive towards sustainable business models for recycling and reusing products. I intend to help them by assessing the environmental impact and profitability of these. Concretely, I improve and apply a method called Life cycle assessment (LCA) which entails the impact assessment over the complete life cycle of the product, in this case from flooring production until reuse or recycling into new flooring.”

How did your collaboration come to be and what are you working on specifically?

“My research group, headed by Enrico Benetto, at the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) is specialized in this particular field. Tarkett has already invested many efforts into obtaining circular solutions, and yet considerably recycles flooring installation cutoffs.

“Specifically, I collaborate with the R&D Unit of Tarkett at Wiltz. Challenges for the assessment are the consideration of the complete life cycle chain and the coverage of different loops of the recycling or reuse over time and related flows of waste handling at a regional level.

“I am improving LCA and at the same time applying it to business models for PVC flooring of Tarkett. The idea is to also provide knowledge and tools that could then be used for different cases and by other industries.”

Thomas Schaubroeck is a Postdoc with an Industrial Fellowship, as part of which he works on a collaborative project between the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) and Tarkett, a flooring company.

RELATED PROGRAMMES

You are based both at LIST and Tarkett – what does your collaboration look like in practice, for example are you based in one or two locations?

“I am mainly based at LIST at the Belvaux site but frequently visit the R&D site at Wiltz of Tarkett. At Tarkett I have a main supervisor, Alain Casoli, who coordinates the collaboration with the company. We have already visited headquarters at France and Netherlands for feedback from sales and managerial departments on my research. Specialists from the company, a team of 4-5 people, were involved in the data collection and development of the analysis and related tool, through various rounds of feedback and meetings. At LIST side, feedback and collaboration with colleagues is also performed.”

In your opinion, how does doing your research in collaboration with an industry partner differ from working in academia?

“Working with industry is relevant and interesting in order to valorize your work and get direct feedback, e.g. in my case whether my assessment or tool is of value, clear and concrete enough. It also makes you aware of pragmatic factors that should be taken into account, e.g. whether data is readily available for the tool.

“I got the opportunity to better grasp the complexity of doing business, e.g. regarding legal constraints and taking into account the other stakeholders in the value chain. In my opinion, the academic environment allows for more fundamental and non-marketable research, which is also of relevance.

“Both academia and industry need to coexist, partially independently, but also should collaborate to valorize fundamental research into practical applications, which is typically done at an RTO such as LIST.”

Thomas works closely with the staff at Tarkett's Wiltz site. Left to right: Alain Casoli, Vincent Monti, Aleksandra Jaworska & Thomas Schaubroeck

R&D lies at the heart of innovation, but many companies do not have the know-how in all the required research areas. How do you think industry benefits from working with specialised researchers, such as yourself?

“Research can boost industry through its innovation and creativity. In my case, I aspire to help guide the company towards circular business models that are more profitable and environmentally friendly by presenting an improved assessment and tool. The direct partnership of industry with researchers speeds up their collaboration.

“More precisely, industry can provide direct constraints and information on what is desired from the researchers and their research. The researcher can swiftly inform and provide knowledge and technology that are both of value to the industry.

“Moreover, without direct collaboration, new knowledge and innovations might be overlooked by the industry and valorization and relevance for these overlooked by the researcher.”

This is not your first experience of working with an industry partner, can you share a bit about what you worked on before you came to Luxembourg and started this project?

“From 2010 to 2016, I worked at the Ghent University on the topic of environmental impact assessment of mainly industrial systems. More precisely, the development and application of the method Life cycle assessment, which covers the impact over the complete life cycle of a product.

“I was involved in collaborations with various industrial partners, ranging from a fish producer in Vietnam to a battery recycling company in Belgium. My PhD, defended in 2014, was on the specific topic of environmental impact assessment of wood production, from forest growth up until final disposal.

“After my PhD, I had the opportunity to stay for two more years at Ghent University to continue my research, teach classes as main lecturer and co-supervise PhD students, partially replacing a professor on sabbatical leave. I looked forward to a new experience at a strong research team to further my research and was happy to have found one in Luxembourg.”

Looking ahead, what impact do you hope your research can have, overall? Is there a particular question you want to answer during your career?

“I hope to provide concrete feedback on striking sustainability issues with the current state-of-the-art methodology. In my case, I help to point out sustainable flooring recycling or reuse business models for Tarkett.

“In general, sustainability assessment serves as a compass to guide industry and society towards a more sustainable future. My career ambition is to contribute to such an effort and, in the long run, look at the issue from a multidisciplinary perspective, including a social and philosophical viewpoint.

“The vagueness of the concept “sustainability” is a hurdle and I hope to realign it with a concept that covers what people currently value and need. In other words, sustainability assessment will characterize the effect on the well-being of current society, related to the fulfilment of those needs (indirectly including protecting nature).

“Based on this, I want to help developing a multidisciplinary global model (integrating physical, economic and social models-alike) that covers changes in global cause-effect chains on human needs, which would eventually also be practically usable by industry and society for common questions. Society needs strong IT-support on this matter since the forecasting of complex global cause-effect chains goes beyond the capabilities of the human mind.”


More information about this project: https://www.list.lu/en/research/project/florec/

About Spotlight on Young Researchers

Spotlight on Young Researchers is an FNR initiative to highlight early career researchers across the world who have a connection to Luxembourg. The campaign is now in its 4th year, with 45+ researchers already featured. Discover more young researcher stories below.

More in the series SPOTLIGHT ON YOUNG RESEARCHERS

  • All
  • Cancer research
  • Environmental & Earth Sciences
  • Humanities & Social Sciences
  • Information & Communication Technologies
  • Law, Economics & Finance
  • Life Sciences, Biology & Medicine
  • Materials, Physics & Engineering
  • Mathematics
  • Research meets industry
  • Spotlight on Young Researchers
  • Sustainable resource mgmt
  • Women in science

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Eva Lagunas

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Carole Lara Veiga de Sousa

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Sebastian Scheer

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Shedding light on female writers in Luxembourg

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Harnessing the potential of the Internet of Things and satellites to make smart agriculture a reality

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Gil Georges

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Kacy Greenhalgh

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Thomas Elliot

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Michel Summer

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Improving how industrial plants are engineered

Spotlight on Young Researchers – revisited 5 years later: From Luxembourg to Australia

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Understanding how language manifests in the brain

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Alex Gansen

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Are you what you eat?

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Neighbourhood characteristics as determinants of health

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Remko Nijzink

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Pit Ullmann

Spotlight on Young Researchers – revisited 5 years later: From drones to space robotics

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Dominique Santana

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Christof Ferreira Torres

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Amy Parrish

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Understanding our immune system

Spotlight on Young Researchers: The challenge of getting autonomous systems to work together seamlessly

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Isabel Z. Martínez

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Bella Tsachidou

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Pit Losch

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Konstantinos Papadopoulos

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Xianqing Mao

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Glioblastoma and the challenge of getting cancer drugs to reach the brain

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Multiple nationalities, one goal

A system to support forest ecosystem decision-making

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Foni Raphaël Lebrun-Ricalens

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Svenja Bourone

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Measuring the environmental impact of investment funds

Spotlight on Young Researchers: László Sándor

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Dark patterns and the battle to free the web from manipulation

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Zhe Liu

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Steve Dias Da Cruz

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Hussein Rappel

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Dimitra Anastasiou

Spotlight on Young Researchers: AI for ethical and legal debates

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Martin Řehoř

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Anjali Sharma

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Charles de Bourcy

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Gilles Tossing

Spotlight on Young Researchers: The hidden half of plants

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Michel Thill

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Antoun Al Absi

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Paulo Carvalho

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Taking language barriers out of the equation

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Léon-Charles Tranchevent

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Ramping up carbohydrates production

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Nathasia Mudiwa Muwanigwa

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Increasing the diversity of plant species used for vegetable oil

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Laurie Maldonado

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Anna Schleimer

Spotlight on Young Researchers: How is scientific quality fostered by research collaboration?

Spotlight on Young Researchers: A hazelnut quality forecasting system

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Maciej Piotr Chrzanowski

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Collecting individual and personal stories of the war generation in Luxembourg

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Assessing the sustainability of Luxembourgish agriculture

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Pier Mario Lupinu

Spotlight On Young Researchers: Henderika de Vries

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Max Hilaire Wolter

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Noémie Catherine Engel

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Towards predicting ageing-related diseases

Spotlight on Young Researchers: German Castignani

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Lucas Oesch

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Silvia Girardi

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Nature does it best

Overcoming antiquated ideas about history

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Hameeda Jagalur Basheer

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Toward a risk assessment system for natural and biological systems

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Paul Johanns

Spotlight on Young Researchers: A fully automatic flood mapping algorithm

Spotlight on Young Researchers: An algorithm to allocate satellite resources

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Yamila Mariel Omar

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Anna Monzel

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Empowering critical digital humanities practice

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Ramona Pelich

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Paul Hauseux

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Nature’s shapes as mathematical challenges

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Mohammad Zare

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Jo Hoeser

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Identifying environmental pollutants

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Maxime Brami

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Membranes for clean water

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Damien Brevers

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Maria Pires Pacheco

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Ernesto Gargiulo

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Understanding the impact climate change has on crop-threatening insects

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Adham Ayman Al-Sayyad

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Turning up the heat on solar absorbers

Spotlight on Young Researchers: The human gut microbiome and the clues it holds

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Understanding brain mechanisms behind eating disorders

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Antonio Ancora

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Sumit Gautam

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Cyrille Thinnes

Spotlight on Young Researchers: The historical relationship between the European Community and the Soviet Union

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Environmental factors and their role in Parkinson’s Disease

Spotlight on Young Researchers: A gas sensor powered by natural light

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Nanotechnology – a future big player in health

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Anna Scaini

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Understanding drug resistance in skin cancer

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Nina Hentzen

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Dementia in neurodegeneration – defining the role of microglia, the brain’s immune cells

Spotlight on Young Researchers: The role a gene plays in neurodegeneration and cancer

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Jose-Luis Sanchez-Lopez

Spotlight on Young Researchers – revisited 5 years later: A post-PhD life in finance

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Katharina Baum

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Taking disruptions into account in life cycle/sustainability assessment

Spotlight on Young Researchers: Guillaume Nataf

This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you agree to the use of cookies for analytics purposes. Find out more in our Privacy Statement