The MET Forum aims to link external knowledge regarding metropolitan challenges, innovations, and solutions to the MADE and AMS Institute community by inviting experts with different backgrounds from all over the world to share their stories. The MET Forum is an initiative led by MADE master students.

In this first event organised by the MET Forum, we will dive into the world of circular economies and learn how Ecuador is planning on achieving the goal.

To discuss this topic we have invited Melanie Valencia to share her research in Ecuador. Melanie is an Andean from Ambato, Ecuador. She is pursuing her interdisciplinary PhD at KU Leuven in circular economy focusing on its social determinants and the informal sector’s role in the socioecological transition. She has been a consultant for developing Ecuador's national circular economy strategy, food waste and losses evaluation and reduction methodology for WWF, among other experiences. She is one of ASU-Leonardo’s imagination fellows for 2020 telling stories of circular care. She has been working at the intersection of environmental engineering and social innovation. She was named MIT Innovator Under 35 in 2016 and was also one of Project Drawdown’s research fellows.