The fashion industry is facing new expectations around circular design, lifestyle accountability, and compliance, meaning that the next generation of designers and fashion professionals will need to prepare.

To help students gain hands-on experience with circularity, CircKit has developed a special academic licensing program for universities. CircKit is an AI-powered circular toolkit for fashion and footwear based in Manchester, England. The company launched in 2025 with a grant from Innovate UK. They’re built on the understanding that 91 percent of the impact of products comes from the design stage, meaning that the most significant decisions about cost and compliance happen upstream.

CircKit is now giving students access to their circular design and compliance tool with this first institutional partnership with De Montfort University, a public university in Leicester, England that runs a strong program in fashion and textiles. They plan to use the CircKit technology across multiple courses and are now the first institution in the U.K. to use industry-level circular fashion technology in the curricula.

“Adopting CircKit has been a natural step in embedding the Design Council’s Skills for Planet within our Schools curricula at De Montfort University. It allows us to bring Life Cycle Assessment into the heart of teaching, giving students a practical way to understand and act on sustainability,” said Stuart Lawson, deputy head at School of Design Innovation, DeMontfort University.

Using CircKit, students can experience industry lifecycle assessment tools, learning how to navigate compliance and eco-design strategies. This gives them hands-on experience in sustainability and circularity, as well as the kind of critical thinking and decision-making skills needed in the workplace.

The platform will allow students to learn circularity terminology, look at design-stage impact decisions, and explore realistic compliance scenarios. The CircKit platform demonstrates how supply chain and product design decisions lead to implications downstream.

“DMU quickly recognised the interplay of CircKit’s various modules and how they can support their syllabus. They saw the bigger opportunity, and in doing so are setting a new benchmark for what industry-ready fashion education can look like,” said Joe Darwen, founder and CEO of CircKit.

The technology is built around three drivers: Commercial, the costs and ensuing decisions that drive any business; Compliance, the regulatory drivers from Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) to Digital Product Passports (DPPs); and Climate, including the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) regulations that brands must follow.

On the CircKit platform, the user can upload their data in any format (BOMs, range plans, critical paths, tech packs, etc.) and the program turns it into SKU-level records for every product. It can then run ISO/PEF‑aligned LCAs, EPR fees and Digital Product Passports across whole ranges. This gives the user information about the impact, durability, and recyclability while they are still developing the product. They can compare materials and constructions, cut regulatory cost, and design for circular models.

CircKit is accepting applications from universities and fashion schools now for the September 2026 academic term. The company says they will be announcing further partnerships soon.