Regional Innovation Valleys for Circular economy

ongoing

In line with the new European Innovation Agenda’s flagship on accelerating and strengthening innovation in European Innovation Ecosystems across the EU and addressing the innovation divide, the RIVCircular project proposes the collaboration of six European regions in southern (Madrid), central (Haut de France), northern (Innlandet and Brandenburg) and eastern (Kosice and Kiev) Europe in the field of the circular economy. The RIVCircular project will focus its actions on five key priorities, of great interest to the participating regions, of the circular economy. These are: • Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW) circularity. • Waste- Resource and energy recapture. • Electric Vehicle (EV) batteries recycling. • Circular economy in the textile industry. • Improving the digitization of the circular economy The RIVCircular consortium will develop two types of activities: • Competitive selection and funding (joint open calls implemented via financial support to third parties - FSTP) of six interregional innovation calls in the circular economy area, including deep tech, linked to key priorities mentioned above. • A consistent set of core collaborative activities to improve the connections and cooperation between the participants regions with a different innovative profile: o Community of Madrid and Brandenburg are strong innovator. o Innlandet and Hauts de France are moderated innovator o Kosice and Kiev are emerging innovator Collaborative activities will be developed in the following areas: • Networking and coordination structures and tools to facilitate innovation development. • Support for local innovation hubs networking. • Capacity and skills building. • Joint procurement initiatives. • Integration of social innovators and civil society. • Identifying market-access barriers and enablers.