Realising the Transition to the Circular Economy: Models, Methods and Applications

Project Information

ReTraCE

Grant agreement ID: 814247

DOI

10.3030/814247

Project closed

EC signature date 20 August 2018

Start date 1 November 2018

End date 30 April 2023

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 4 039 862,04

EU contribution

€ 4 039 862,04

Coordinated by

THE UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD
United Kingdom

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - ReTraCE (Realising the Transition to the Circular Economy: Models, Methods and Applications)

Reporting period: 2020-11-01 to 2023-04-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The project "Realising the Transition to the Circular Economy" (ReTraCE) has been funded by Horizon 2020 EU’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Networks and has provided support to the implementation of the European Commission’s Circular Economy strategy.
A Circular Economy is an alternative to a traditional linear economy (make, use, dispose) in which we keep resources for as long as possible, extract the maximum value from them whilst in use, then recover and regenerate products and materials at the end of their useful life. It aims to redefine economic growth, focusing on positive society-wide benefits.
The project has brought together world-leading experts from a wide set of beneficiaries and partners to achieve breakthroughs in understanding how the transition towards a circular economy can be realised – both within existing organisations and industries as well as through innovative and sustainable business models.
The main innovation proposed by the project has been the development of a holistic approach for evaluating and realising the transition towards the Circular Economy, involving knowledge and methodologies from multiple domains (including Supply Chain Management, Environmental Science, Environmental and Ecological Economics, Science and Technology Studies, Innovation Studies) and addressing economic, environmental and social issues.
The trans-national, multi-disciplinary, multi-sector, multi-stakeholder approach proposed in this project aims to bridge the main gap in research dealing with the CE paradigm, that, until recently, has been characterised by a “silo” approach that has undermined theoretical development and knowledge transfer to practitioners. The research which has been performed within this project will directly facilitate the implementation of the recently adopted ambitious Circular Economy strategy of the European Commission, which is closely linked to Sustainable Development Goals.
The network has designed and delivered world-class multidisciplinary training to 17 Early Stage Researchers, offering them an extended and valuable program of international exchanges and secondments through a wide network of partner organisations – from public, private and third sector.
The multi-disciplinary project has drawn upon research that will advance the current understanding of the circular economy from economic, environmental and social perspectives, providing policy insights and implications for practice.
ESRs from the ReTraCE project have also undertaken doctoral training, and have now been employed by research institutions, public sector bodies, consultancy firms and industrial organisations, which all require new professional profiles for realising the transition towards the circular economy.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The project has now been completed. 17 ESRs have been hired by the beneficiary institutions. All of them have been enrolled in a PhD programme. 540 person-months of training have been delivered.
Besides the individual training offered by the partner institutions, several network schools have been arranged, along with project meetings with industry; a rich seminar programme has been offered to the ESRs, involving key scholars, practitioners and policy-makers actively engaged in designing the transition towards a Circular Economy. A rich training programme aimed at endowing ESRs with complementary and soft skills has also been implemented; such events have run in parallel to the Network Schools.
ESRs' progress has been solid, both in their individual projects and in collaborative work at a project level, as testified by the extremely large amount of publications which has been produced (with more papers in advanced review stage) and by project deliverables.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

A detailed account of the project objectives, and of the progress against them, is offered in provided in the following.
WP1 - Circular Supply Chains and Production Systems. All WP1 deliverables were successfully completed, with no major deviation from the original schedule. These deliverables are concerned with the following topics: decision support framework aimed at measuring the circularity quotient of supply chains (D1.1); risk management practices within Circular Supply Chains (D1.2); collaboration practices within Circular Supply Chains (D1.3); collaboration practices to mitigate risks within Circular Supply Chains (D1.4); reflections on the implementation of decision support frameworks aimed at measuring the circularity quotient of supply chains (D1.5); and a mathematical modelling toolkit (D1.6). ESRs’ progress has been solid, as testified by the 16 journal publications produced by the end of the project, the constant participation to international conferences, and a good amount of further papers in advanced review stage.
WP2 - Towards The Circular Economy: Assessing Environmental Efficiency. All WP2 deliverables were successfully completed, with no major deviation from the original schedule. Results produced by ESRs (which employ several types of environmental assessment methods included in the integrated assessment framework) have been published in prestigious international journals, with several further papers in advanced review stage. Case studies included in these papers have also informed project deliverables (especially D2.2 and D2.3). Methodological developments, mainly aimed at describing the integration of methods for environmental assessment in order to aid the transition towards a Circular Economy have been illustrated in D2.1 and D2.5. The performance of the WP has been solid, as testified by the 32 journal publications produced by the end of the project, the constant participation to international conferences, and a good amount of further papers in advanced review stage.
WP3 - Towards The Circular Economy: Assessing Economic Efficiency. All WP3 deliverables were successfully completed, with no major deviation from the original schedule. Such deliverables were concerned, respectively, with the arrangement of a structural framework for the engagement of stakeholders in Circular Economy research, and with the definition of crucial concepts and approaches for assessing economic efficiency within as part of the CE
Transition. Also, deliverables within this WP have been dealing with applications of these approaches, and with an assessment of how different future conceptions of the CE might be evaluated and assessed. The performance of the WP has been solid, as testified by the 9 journal publications produced by the end of the project, the constant participation to international conferences, and a good amount of further papers in advanced review stage.
WP4 - Development Policy for The Circular Economy. ESRs have successfully completed all deliverables for this WP, with minor deviations on the schedule. Such deliverables have been concerned, respectively, with: a best-practices for the transition towards a Circular Economy (including both bottom-up and top-down policies); of a map of stakeholders for the development of regional policy concerned with the Circular Economy; a performance evaluation system for Circular Economy implementation at a regional level; circular economy business models and consumer’s perspectives. The performance of the WP has been solid, as testified by the 5 journal publications produced by the end of the project, the constant participation to international conferences, and a good amount of further papers in advanced review stage.

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