Circular Economy Forum Austria

The Circular Economy Forum Austria (CEFA) is Austria's largest independent multi-stakeholder platform for the promotion of the circular economy. The forum supports companies and their ecosystem on the path to a circular economy, connecting key actors from business, policy, science, research, and design to create innovative circular value chains. As a learning, development, and dialogue platform, CEFA fosters knowledge exchange, new business models, and systemic approaches to a regenerative circular economy in Austria.

CEFA's flagship research initiative is KRAISBAU (2024–2028), a €4 million FFG-funded project bringing together more than 32 partners from academia, construction industry, and the public sector. KRAISBAU develops AI-supported tools and processes to embed circular economy principles into real-world construction workflows — from material passports and urban mining strategies to lifecycle-based decision-making.

CEFA is governed by a seven-member board. The KRAISBAU project is led by Vice President FH-Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. techn. Anna-Vera Deinhammer, who also holds Austria's first fully privately financed Endowed Professorship for Sustainable Real Estate Development at FHWien der WKW, supported by a consortium of five industry stakeholders including Erste Bank, BUWOG, TPA, and Lenikus. Her research focuses on the interdependencies of climate neutrality, circular economy, and climate change adaptation across the lifecycle of buildings - both new construction and existing stock. Grounded in Design Science Research methodology and her framework of Integral Engineering Science, she develops practice-oriented solutions at the intersection of EU regulatory frameworks (EU Taxonomy, EPBD, CSRD), Sustainable Finance, and Quadruple Helix governance. Deinhammer is also a partner at architecture studio BFA x KLK.