Introduction to the Project

The new European Circular Cities and Regions Initiative (CCRI) is part of the new European Circular Economy Action Plan adopted in March 2020 and aims to support Europe’s green transition by boosting circularity at local and regional level. In order to build capacity and drive economic growth, it works to increase collaboration and knowledge sharing between EU cities and regions. The CCRI also aims to boost innovation and upscaling, which are essential for making the circular economy more widespread and mainstream. The CCRI will share replicable best practices to help cities and regions find concrete Circular Systemic Solutions that suit their own needs.  The CCRI-Coordination and Support Office (CCRI-CSO) is an international multi-disciplinary teams of circular economy experts and is at the core of the CCRI activities. They will implement the Circular Cities and Regions Initiative offering support to the cities, regions and territorial clusters that will be selected as Pilots and Fellows.

Project Objectives

Project Objectives

The CCRI Coordination and Support Office provides technical and comprehensive support over the whole life cycle of urban and regional circular economy initiatives of cities, regions and territorial clusters from Europe. 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 to 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’s. CCRI is aiming for the highest ambition and best ideas to capitalise cross sectorial cooperation and innovation and the biggest potential for transferability of these Circular Systemic Solutions (CSS) to other cities, regions and territorial clusters.

More specifically, the CCRI-CSO:

  • supports cooperation, synergies and complementarities between the CCRI Pilots and Fellows, CCRI Projects, Associated Partners and other relevant stakeholders;
  • assists the CCRI Pilots with the development of their CSS, as well as supporting good practice exchange and upscaling;
  • analyses the main research and innovation gaps, but also the main policy, technical, regulatory barriers and drivers to circular economy transition at local and regional scale, and providing policy recommendations to overcome them;
  • presents lessons learned from CCRI-CSO activities for further dissemination, communication and awareness raising activities. 

 

ERRIN is pleased to count over 20 CCRI Pilots & Fellows selected from among ERRIN Member Regions.

ERRIN's Role

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.

 

  • Astrid Hannes
  • Project Manager
  • Gianpiero Petruzziello
  • Project and Communications Officer

Benefit & Links

Making circularity work for people, cities and regions, is one of the key ambitions of the New European Circular Economy Action Plan. With the Circular Cities and Regions Initiative, the European Commission provides an instrument for accelerating the transition to a circular economy on local and regional scale by providing key assistance to cities and regions. The Circular Cities and Regions Initiative complements the proposed European Urban Initiative and the Intelligent Cities Challenge Initiative. There will also be synergies with other policy frameworks, such as the Green Deal and the European Bioeconomy Strategy. Circular economy will also be among the priority areas of the Green City Accord.

The CCRI is the ideal steppingstone for cities and regions to gain first-hand information about funding opportunities and build their network to participate in the wider CCRI ecosystem, which also includes funding. These funding opportunities include €200 million for circular economy demonstration projects focusing on experimentation and at least €40 million for project development assistance with investment proposals applying for project development grants from Horizon Europe and Circular Economy Technical Assistance Facility grants from the European Investment Bank. While the demonstration grants are for experimental projects, the project development assistance targets mature initiatives at the beginning of their investment phase, speeding up the full-scale roll-out of these circular activities.

 

CCRI opportunities for ERRIN-members in 2024

2024 will offer some unique opportunities for ERRIN members to provide inputs for the 2025-2027 Work Programme of Horizon Europe, particularly for Cluster 6, and for future initiatives of the European Commission in the field of Circular Economy. To that end, the Circular Cities and Regions Initiative (CCRI), one of ERRIN's projects being the cooperation and support scheme of the European Commission, will organise a series of Multi-Stakeholder Dialogues. These dialogues aim to deepen the understanding of remaining Research & Innovation needs by engaging with key stakeholders from local and regional governments, researchers from academia and industry and organisations working at regional, national or EU level in the field of circular economy. 

Experts who are interested in participating in these Multi-Stakeholder Dialogues, are invited to express their interest by completing this survey. The European Commission will then select the shortlist of experts to invite depending on the topic.

Latest Updates

Bioeconomy Working Group Breakfast meeting: 2023 kick off
  • By Astrid Hannes

Bioeconomy Working Group Breakfast meeting: 2023 kick off

This Bioeconomy Working Group breakfast meeting offers an opportunity for all Bioeconomy WG members to come together to network and jointly kick-off the WG activities for 2023. The WG leaders will present the annual plan for the new year, along with the European Commission presenting the Circular Cities and Regions Initiative (CCRI), to discuss how the WG members can be involved in the planned work.

CCRI Webinar on Monitoring the Transition to Circular Economy
  • By Astrid Hannes

CCRI Webinar on Monitoring the Transition to Circular Economy

The CCRI Coordination and Support Office, in which ERRIN is involved, is organising the 3rd CCRI online webinar on 'Monitoring the transition to Circular Economy' on 7 February 2023. You can register for the webinar until 6 February.

CCRI Webinar Horizon Europe Calls
  • By Astrid Hannes

CCRI Webinar on New Horizon Europe calls for circular economy at local and regional scale

The CCRI Coordination and Support Office is pleased to invite you to the CCRI-CSO webinar on new Horizon Europe calls for circular economy at local and regional scale, that will be held online on the 15th of December, 10:00-12:00 CET. 

CCRI Webinar: Call for Pilots and Fellows
  • By Astrid Hannes

CCRI information session: Call for Pilots and Fellows

On 20 April 2022 the Coordination and Support Office of the Circular Cities and Regions Initiative (CCRI), managed by ERRIN, is organising a webinar on the call for expression of interest for Pilots and Fellows of the Circular Cities & Regions Initiative. During this informative session, you will receive information on the scope of the CCRI as well as on the open call for Pilots and Fellows.