Accelerating the Circular Economy across Europe
European Circular Innovation Valley (ECIV) delegates met in Glasgow in September to review progress on Europe-wide acceleration of the circular economy and to meet some of Scotland’s leading innovators.
ECIV is a collaborative, pan-European programme (funded by Horizon Europe and the European Regional Development Fund) set up to unite regions across Europe to promote innovation and partnership, and to accelerate the shift towards a circular economy.
IBioIC and Scottish Enterprise, jointly representing the Scottish region, jointly hosted delegates from across Europe to Scotland for the ECIV annual consortium meeting.
The consortium meeting kicked off at the Sir Jim McDonald Technology and Innovation Centre at the University of Strathclyde on the Tuesday, with a day spent reviewing Regional Action Plans, understanding how regions are applying circular economy principles in practice, followed by thematic workshops.
As the host region, Scotland was delighted to introduce the delegation to some of its creative innovators. SilviBio and Carbogenics joined proceedings on Tuesday to talk about the work that they are doing developing a sustainable peat-free growing medium and a novel patent-pending biochar product called CreChar, respectively. On Wednesday, the group made the trip to Forth Valley College where they heard from Vaste founder Evans Chelal about his innovative biomass trading platform. Delegates then enjoyed a tour of Grangemouth to visit Celtic Renewables, whose patented technology converts low-value byproducts and residues into industrially relevant green chemicals, and MiAlgae, which is producing a polyunsaturated fatty-acid-rich microalgae as a fishmeal replacement.
The consortium meeting is a regular and crucial touchpoint for partners to explore how collaboration can help accelerate the transition to a more circular and resilient economy. The conversations and networking that took place throughout the event highlighted the value of bringing people from different organisations and regions of Europe together, with learnings shared and objectives set for the next phase of the project’s life.