Cities and regions play an essential role in the transition towards a more circular society as they operate in key sectors like waste management, mobility, energy, land use and many others.

CircularInvest is one of the Project Development Assistance projects (PDA) operating under the EU's Circular Cities and Regions Initiative (CCRI). It supports project promoters by providing the support they need to develop investment-ready circular economy projects at local and regional scales. CircularInvest will help cities and regions implement circular strategies by removing obstacles and closing the gap between circular economy project promoters and investors.

CircularInvest´s PDA services are tailored for circular projects with a sufficient level of maturity that offer a minimum viable product/service or scalable prototype and adopt a clear business model that demonstrates the projects´ economic potential. The projects should be innovative, providing unique benefits or advantages to customers compared to existing alternatives and generate positive impacts (environmental, economic, social) in one or more territories (sub-national, local or regional) in one or more countries eligible in CircularInvest.

Through CircularInvest´s services, circular economy project promoters will have the opportunity to:

• Benefit from tailored mentoring sessions delivered by experts to improve the supported projects´ circularity, provide/review a business plan and help secure funding.
• Participate in peer-to-peer online workshops with the other supported circular economy project promoters.
• Join online and live pitch sessions with potential investors.
• Take part in knowledge transfer, networking events, and the Circular Investment Readiness Network. 
• Promote their projects through CircularInvest channels.

More information

You can find the call information here. Deadline for application is 13 September 2024, 17:00 CET. Applications will only be accepted if submitted through the CircularInvest platform (see section 5 on Application submission). Paper or email application submissions are not admissible.

ERRIN is one of ten contracting partners in the European Circular Cities and Regions Initiative Coordination and Support Office and also manages the CCRI-Helpdesk. ERRIN assumes the Community Management’s role in setting up multi-stakeholder dialogues during this four-year project, reaching out to cities and regions and maximising their growth in circular economy implementation. Based on the selection results of an open call, 12 selected Pilots benefit from four years of knowledge-sharing with technical support to speed up their circular policy implementation. More specifically, the 12 Pilots will demonstrate and facilitate the replication of at least one Circular Systemic Solution in a specific territory. Furthermore, the 25 selected Fellows liaise with the Pilot group to engage in this multistakeholder learning process, liaising them with industry representatives, research and technology organisations and civil society stakeholders across Europe. CCRI is aiming for the highest ambition and best ideas to capitalise on cross-sectorial cooperation and innovation and the most significant potential for transferability of these Circular Systemic Solutions (CSS) to other cities, regions and territorial clusters.

Interested in joining the CCRI Community? Sign up for the CCRI Newsletter and participate in the upcoming CCRI events.