Project description
Supporting the circular economy’s uptake in Aragon, Spain
Circularity is an essential aspect of the industry transformation towards resource-efficiency, climate neutrality and long-term competitiveness. The EU-funded RESOURCE project will study and speed up the private funding of circularity-related projects in Aragon by bringing together partners from across the entire value chain. It will develop a project development assistance solution to reinforce these projects by building an integrated expertise pool to support technically, economically and legally the regional circular economy pilot SMEs. It will also develop innovative financing schemes and business models, and launch concrete investments. Results will be disseminated to maximize the project’s impact in Aragon and beyond.
Objective
The Region of Aragon together with local and European partners aims to support the uptake of the Aragonese Circular Economy (CE), through a new project development assistance service, that aims at accelerating the private funding of CE projects in the region: The RESOURCE project (REgional project development aSsistance fOr the Uptake of an aRagonese Circular Economy).
RESOURCE gathers partners all along the value chain. G.A.C Group, (impact maximisation) is the project coordinator. CEEIARAGON the regional a reference centre of Aragon for the development and consolidation of technology-based business projects, will support GAC in co-coordinating the Project. Project partners involve the Government of Aragon (policy alignment), ANCES (links to private funders), AITIIP (technical support to projects), European Business Network, to liaise with a large array of European region and the CCRI, and University of Leiden, for expertise on circularity assessment.
The overall implication is that implementing a change from a linear to a circular business model involves significant risks, which necessitates de-risking, in combination with a learning environment. Providing some financial support is essential. Investors and lenders need to learn about and assess better if financing such business investments in circular transitions will pay off, so that they ultimately can take over the role of providing risk capital.
RESOURCE aims therefore at co-creating a Project Development Assistance (PDA) solution which reinforces Circular Economy projects, supports innovative business models and investment schemes, to help them raise funds from the private market in Aragon. In this project 9 pilot projects will seek funds for an investment of 20M€. The approach developed in the project aims at feeding from European best practices and replicated in other regions.
RESOURCE is focussing on the Aragon region and will last 36 months.
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Funding Scheme
HORIZON-CSA - HORIZON Coordination and Support ActionsCoordinator
92130 Issy Les Moulineaux
France
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.