Many of the new comers to the European Union are still discovering all the options and opportunities there are to bring the Circular Economy to a reality. Here, it seems to be a million ways to overcome some of the barriers for transitioning to a Circular Economy that have been already identified and presented in a previous post. One example of tools that help overcome them is the Horizon 2020 program:
“Horizon 2020 is the biggest EU Research and Innovation programme ever with nearly €80 billion of funding available over 7 years (2014 to 2020) – in addition to the private investment that this money will attract. It promises more breakthroughs, discoveries and world-firsts by taking great ideas from the lab to the market. Horizon 2020 is the financial instrument implementing the Innovation Union, a Europe 2020 flagship initiative aimed at securing Europe's global competitiveness.” (1) In the own opinion of the European Commission this program is strongly related to Circular Innovation. Here we present what components of a Circular Economy could have more funding opportunities under the Horizon 2020 program and which specific subprograms are more relevant for initiatives towards a Circular Economy. The top elements of a Circular Economy with more opportunities:
The bottom elements of a Circular Economy with less opportunities
On a more detailed level, if we look at the specific subelements of the different levels of innovations, here are the champions under the Horizon 2020 program in terms of funding opportunities:
While the possible losers would be given the fact that they are not cover by as many programs as the above mentioned :
Under this scenario product/service and process innovations are more relevant than systems innovation which in our opinion is at the heart of the Circular Economy. The first two might yield results faster but if they are not set in a broader changing context, uptake will be slower and transition will take more time to happen. If not under the Horizon 2020, the European Commission needs to find sources for this landscape level changes in order to facilitate the transition to the new model. Design actions do not have many funding opportunities under the program, neither do logistics activities. Under the Circular Economy, design is considered a key element since at this stage of the value chain is when the enabling principles of sustainability and of circularity are incorporated into the product/service. Logistics is also a key activity since on it depends the ability of the economy to close the loop. Research and innovation are key for this two activities so the question is where does the European Commission think the resources will come from, to develop these new models and ideas. These arrangement of opportunities for specific components of the Circular Economy could be explained by the subprograms of the Horizon 2020 and their relation to the Circular Economy components. The pillars that group the most opportunities for Circular Economy activities and innovations are:
The pillars less connected with the Circular Economy transition are:
Each of the pillars has subprograms that provide the funds for the projects. The main subprograms to support the innovations and activities needed towards a Circular Economy are:
Cheers,
1 Comentario
Sohail
8/11/2014 11:50:13 pm
Very Nice article
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