C-VOUCHER, a new Horizon 2020 project with an innovative component, will take place over 3 years in the regions of North-West Romania, Galicia in Spain, Mazovia in Poland, Paris in France, Sweden and Denmark.
Implemented by a consortium of 6 development agencies from different countries, together with business accelerators and innovative companies, the project aims, with a generous budget of 5.2 million euros, to support the development of 12 innovative circular economy projects in areas the manufacturing, agri-food, textile, water and health industry, solutions to be adopted in these industries by financing 42 feasibility studies.
Promoters of regional development and supporters of increasing the competitiveness of the economic environment, represented with priority by SMEs, North-West Regional Development Agency will facilitate the access of commercial companies in the region to the entire process of learning and implementing processes specific to the circular economy, as well as to the voucher schemes that will take place to achieve this objective. As a concept, the circular economy is an economy that produces zero waste. It presupposes an economic circuit in which, from the design phase, everything is designed so that the components that contribute to obtaining a product or process are biodegradable or have the potential to be recycled.
By launching two funding calls that will take place between October and November 2018, respectively in the fall of 2019, 24 winning companies will be enrolled in an Acceleration Program to increase innovative ideas (Circularity Program). Following the selections, 12 of them will have at their disposal a maximum budget of 60.00 euros for the development of the solution, they will benefit for 9 months from the personalized assistance of a consultant (coach) with expertise in design thinking and circular economy and will take part in consortium level events on networking opportunities and additional funding, access to investment funds.
Recently, a first call was launched dedicated to the identification, in partner countries, of experts with experience in business consulting services, innovative industrial and service design (# designthinking), in order to select coaching service providers: https://designers-open-call.fundingbox.com/
In July, Agency will organize in Cluj-Napoca a workshop to identify the challenges faced by the targeted industries in the region (Regional Camp), from the perspective of the circular economy - of the waste generated, its disposal, the environment, the product cycle, the possibilities of reusing or recycling residues or end-of-life products. The conclusions resulting from the meetings in each partner region will be centralized at the consortium level within the Workshop European Camp which will take place in September in Denmark and will represent the challenges to which companies will respond with innovative solutions within the first funding call at the end of this year.
Additional details about the project can be obtained from the section Projects under implementation – http://www.nord-vest.ro/proiecte-adr/ – and at the Department of Projects, International Relations, Partnerships within the Northwest Regional Development Agency.