Periodic Reporting for period 2 - SoTecIn Factory (Social and Technological Innovation Factory for Low-Carbon and Circular Industrial Value Chains)
Reporting period: 2023-12-01 to 2025-05-31
The SoTecIn Factory (Social and Technological Innovation Factory for low-carbon and circular industrial value chains) is a project funded by the EU program Horizon Europe. Through a collaborative environment, the project mains objective was to support social entrepreneurs in increasing the circularity of three key product value chains: packaging and plastics; textiles; and food, water and nutrients. Being aligned with the both the EU Action Plan for Circular Economy and the Sustainable Development Goals, SoTecIn Factory is on a mission to drive more sustainable and resilient value chains by building a mission-oriented community that brings together industry, entrepreneurs, social innovators, experts, researchers and investors. Besides, it promotes a culture of social innovation in the European manufacturing industry by supporting highly scalable technologies and new governance models, based on stewardship-ownership principles, to drive systemic change.
SoTecIn Factory community has representatives from 7 European regions, interested in the design and management of the missions that guided the identification of real challenges in the circularity of the three selected value chains. Based on the 7 missions and 23 challenges, SoTecIn Factory conducted two open calls and provided financial and capacity-building support to 50 technologically savvy social entrepreneurs (with circular and social projects) of key product value chains. Out of these, SoTecIn Factory co-developed 30 pre-commercialization demonstrators, which were presented to the public in a two days event held in May 20th in Porto, Portugal, called SoTecIn Factory start-up day. The presented demonstrators targeted higher-value circular economy strategies, i.e. refuse, rethink, reduce, reuse, repair, refurbish and remanufacture.
SoTecIn Factory community has representatives from 7 European regions, interested in the design and management of the missions that guided the identification of real challenges in the circularity of the three selected value chains. Based on the 7 missions and 23 challenges, SoTecIn Factory conducted two open calls and provided financial and capacity-building support to 50 technologically savvy social entrepreneurs (with circular and social projects) of key product value chains. Out of these, SoTecIn Factory co-developed 30 pre-commercialization demonstrators, which were presented to the public in a two days event held in May 20th in Porto, Portugal, called SoTecIn Factory start-up day. The presented demonstrators targeted higher-value circular economy strategies, i.e. refuse, rethink, reduce, reuse, repair, refurbish and remanufacture.
Regarding the Scientific execution, the SoTecIn Factory project has develop models and frameworks aimed at characterizing the circularity strategies of Green Companies. To this end, the adoption of the 10Rs Circularity Strategies and its relation to green technologies, in addition to the main characteristics of business models, scalability, environmental and social impact, will be analysed in 50 circular start-ups supported by the project. So far the project has submitted two papers for evaluation of Q1 journals.
Regarding Technical execution, the first Open Call of SoTecIn Factory received 125 applications, 25 above the expected KPI. In addition, the SoTecIn Factory Community already has more than 1000 followers in the different social channels (LinkedIn, X, Youtube), adding to more than 600 stakeholders involved in the different workshops and activities of the project. Another relevant achievement is the development of an Social / Circular Impact Assessment tool, which will be used and validated by the Techy Savvy Innovators supported by SoTecIn Factory
Regarding Technical execution, the first Open Call of SoTecIn Factory received 125 applications, 25 above the expected KPI. In addition, the SoTecIn Factory Community already has more than 1000 followers in the different social channels (LinkedIn, X, Youtube), adding to more than 600 stakeholders involved in the different workshops and activities of the project. Another relevant achievement is the development of an Social / Circular Impact Assessment tool, which will be used and validated by the Techy Savvy Innovators supported by SoTecIn Factory
The main results beyond the state of the art were:
- Validation of Social / Circular Impact Assessment tool, which was tested in two rounds of evaluation of the 50 supported ventures:
- Capacity Building programme that supported the development and refinement of 50 sustainable social and circular business models. It presents a hands-on interactive program that delivered one-to-all workshops and one-to-one sessions for each SoTecIn Factory venture, aimed for solution validation and business modelling.
- Methodology for co-design and co-development of circular solutions that are mature enough for pre-market demonstration and attractive for investors: This activity differs from other initiatives as it applies the concepts of social innovation, open innovation (including co-creation and co-design), mission-oriented innovation and technology-enabled innovation in an industrial context, while presents a dedicated pre-acceleration program to textiles, packaging & plastics, and food, water & nutrients value chains.
- Validation of Social / Circular Impact Assessment tool, which was tested in two rounds of evaluation of the 50 supported ventures:
- Capacity Building programme that supported the development and refinement of 50 sustainable social and circular business models. It presents a hands-on interactive program that delivered one-to-all workshops and one-to-one sessions for each SoTecIn Factory venture, aimed for solution validation and business modelling.
- Methodology for co-design and co-development of circular solutions that are mature enough for pre-market demonstration and attractive for investors: This activity differs from other initiatives as it applies the concepts of social innovation, open innovation (including co-creation and co-design), mission-oriented innovation and technology-enabled innovation in an industrial context, while presents a dedicated pre-acceleration program to textiles, packaging & plastics, and food, water & nutrients value chains.