Circular economy opportunities for ERRIN members in 2025
2025 opportunities for increasing the circular industrial competitiveness in cities and regions
Circular Economy is an important topic on the 2025 agenda of the new European Commission. The new year will bring several opportunities for ERRIN members to engage with the European Commission and other experts on regional needs and challenges in this field. Several calls bring new opportunities for increasing the circular industrial competitiveness of regional stakeholders and for building capacity among local and regional administrations. The following overview gives ERRIN members an insight of what will be coming.
Policy news: Circular Economy Act and the update of the European Bioeconomy Strategy
Circular economy is high on the 2025 agenda of the new European Commission, and is critical for decarbonising Europe's economy, continuing the shift to a more sustainable pattern of production and consumption, retaining the value of resources in our economy for longer. This will be the purpose of a new Circular Economy Act, helping to create market demand for secondary materials and a single market for waste, notably in relation to critical raw materials.
The European Commission will also open a public consultation in the first quarter of 2025, providing a formal opportunity for stakeholders to provide input for the update of the European Bioeconomy Strategy, in which the circular economy will play an important role.
ERRIN's Bioeconomy Work Group is closely monitoring these developments and has already collected regional examples for an early exchange with the DG ENVI before the opening of the consultation. You can read more here.
Launch of new CCRI Community of Practices for cities and regions
In the first quarter of 2025, the CCRI will launch a new Community of Practices. This will offer new opportunities for cities and regions that are not yet part of the CCRI Community of Pilots and Fellows. This community will allow cities and regions to build their capacity and to increase mutual learning and collaboration opportunities with other circular economy experts in Europe.
165 million funding under the Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking
The Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking (CBE JU) has published its Annual Work Programme for 2025, including information about the next call for project proposals. In 2025, CBE JU will open a call of project proposals covering 13 topics, with a total indicative budget of €165 million. The calls will be published on 4 April 2025. We invite members to save the date for the Infoday, taking place on 3 April.
Second call for the CCRI mentoring programme for cities and regions
The Circular Cities and Regions Initiative (CCRI) has launched in 2024 its CCRI Knowledge Hub and is offering tailored mentoring for cities and regions. As part of this new programme, selected cities and regions will benefit from tailored resources and expert guidance to navigate the complexities of their circular transition.
The programme will start with a comprehensive diagnostic assessment of their current circular transition readiness. The support pathways serve as a structured guide, developed in collaboration with local and regional stakeholders and will include will include tailored workshops, expert mentoring sessions on specific topics, and access to comprehensive materials such as guides, manuals, and other resources.
The first call was closed on 15 December 2024. A second call will be opened soon for cities and regions to apply for the second programme, starting from September 2025 onwards.
CCRI Stakeholder Policy Dialogues
From March until June 2025, the CCRI will be organising a number of CCRI Stakeholder Policy Dialogues to discuss policy recommendations deriving from the CCRI projects, addressing several value chains like agriculture, water, construction and buildings, wood, textiles, municipal and household waste, plastics for instance. ERRIN members that are interested in contributing to these Dialogues can express their interest by e-mailing to Astrid Hannes, astrid.hannes@errin.eu.
The topic of circular economy is closely monitored by ERRIN's Bioeconomy Working Group. You can learn more about the Circular Cities and Regions Initiative, one of ERRIN's projects here.
- Astrid Hannes
- 06/01/2025
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Working Group