CCRI Knowledge Hub aims at increasing the impact of the existing Circular Cities and Regions Initiative (CCRI) by enlarging the network of involved stakeholders, bringing together the knowledge and critical mass already developed around Circular Economy implementation and building upon the CE stakeholder platform. The goal is to promote and make the circular economy concept a reality in EU cities and regions, in particular in those in the early stage of circular economy transition. To reach its objective, CCRI Knowledge Hub will leverage existing initiatives and projects to foster the adoption of circular economy in EU cities and regions. CCRI Knowledge Hub´s formula is based on three principles: (a) easy access to systematized workable knowledge; (b) tailored mentoring according to users’ needs and (c) effective awareness-raising to make the circular economy more desirable, that build upon four main dimensions: (i) Public engagement; (ii) Innovation and technology; (iii) Business models and financial support; and (iv) Impact evaluation. CCRI Knowledge Hub gathers a multidisciplinary expert consortium of 11 partners from 6 EU countries (research and technological centres, universities, research organizations, international networks and associations, regional authorities as well as specialized companies and SMEs) that bring in complementary skills and competences to achieve the project´s objectives.

The EU has a significant amount of waste biomass available, more than 900 million tons per year, and 98% of this material ends up in landfill, incinerators, or rotting in open dumps. According to the 2023 Circularity Gap Report, the global economy is now only 7.2% circular. The EU has great potential to convert bio-waste into bio-based products that can be used in multiple bio-applications. This revalorisation can directly support 5-10 times more employment and generate 4-9 times more added value than energy use. Circular Business Models in Bioeconomy (CBMB) face many challenges to become sustainable and profitable. Firstly, primary producers, the owners of the valuable feedstock, are often not integrated into the bioeconomy value chains, and they are often small scale and are fragmented, reducing their ability to negotiate with those higher up the value chain. The result is a suboptimal distribution of benefits and incentives. The main challenges in designing CBMB consist of: - lack of knowledge sharing and collaboration between stakeholders - need for new supply chains and logistical networks - difficult scale up of innovative technologies - understanding of the potential synergies and symbiotic relationships between sectors - overcoming poor public acceptance - complex and fragmented policy schemes, As a result of this, there is a lack of demonstrated and replicable systemic bio-solutions for the territorial deployment of the circular bioeconomy. The PRIMED Project PRIMED will co-create innovative forms of cooperation to integrate primary producers in novel bioeconomy value chains with a multi-actor approach. To do so, PRIMED will develop novel CBMB to produce high-value bio-based products through advanced biorefineries, and will demonstrate them in five Living Labs (LLab): PRIMED will also empower multi-actors to co-design a collaborative ecosystem to accelerate the bioeconomy, with an Open Access knowledge hub and toolkit (PRIMED digital toolbox).

EcoeFISHent demonstrates a replicable systemic and sustainable cluster for territorial deployment of the climate-neutral circular economy by creating six multilevel and synergic circular value chains (CVC) interconnecting blue- and green-economies to reconcile human industrial and economic activities with marine ecosystems and marine protected areas. The EcoeFISHent innovative bio-mass pre-treatment and extraction technologies will enable sustainable and efficient exploitation of fish processing side-streams (FPS) by obtaining bio-actives and galantine for high value-added food supplements and skin care products, biodegradable and compostable barrier layer for food packaging. Other fishing- and fish-industry side-streams (FFS) will undergo the Black Soldier Fly bioconversion to yield innovative soil fertilizer, oil for biodiesel and chitin for cosmetic applications. End of life fishing nets from aquaculture and fisheries will be recycled and converted into automotive polymer-based components and into packaging for cosmetic products. The multilevel interconnected cluster will be managed by a cloud-based platform communicating with physical IoT systems enabling safe and efficient operation of the logistic and transport infrastructure. The cluster busines model and the cluster digital twin will allow simulating critical and optimal scenarios for quantitative analysis of cluster performance measured by dedicated KPIs, also enabling the assessment of the cluster replicability in other geographic areas and fostering investments pipelines. Community and stakeholder?s involvement will be promoted also in the implementation of specific actions for marine ecosystem preservation by modeling, application of better practices and technologies for strongly reducing by-catch and for stopping ghost gears. Social and justice inclusion programs will be implemented by employing disadvantaged individuals, to increase overall cluster employment and to apply distributive justice criteria