CircularInvest is a CCRI-PDA initiative proposed by 4 organisations (META, INOVA+, Circle Economy and ICLEI EURO) that aims provide project development assistance (PDA) to selected circular economy (CE) project promoters from across Europe so as to access the resources needed to develop significant CE investment projects at local and regional scale and to close the investments during the action. In the proposal phase, CircularInvest collected signed support letters from European cities that wish to benefit from the CircularInvest PDA services with an overall investment volume exceeding €20M. CircularInvest will be deployed in 4 stages: 1) Ignition: promotion and launch of 2 calls for expressions of interest to engage CE project promoters in CircularInvest´s PDA services; 2) Selection: implementing an independent and inclusive selection of CE investment project promoters (beneficiaries) to receive PDA support; 3) Technical assistance: delivering PDA services based on a three-pillar-approach: a) one-to-one tailored specialised services: support from experts to beneficiaries, b) many-to-one peer-to-peer workshops: support from beneficiaries to beneficiaries; b) many-to-many, knowledge transfer and networking actions: knowledge transfer and networking opportunities created for beneficiaries with investors, CE project promoters, and other stakeholders; 4) Replication: distilling lessons learnt and preparing the pathway for future replication through the exploitation key exploitable results: Step-by-Step Guide (K1) for de-risking of future CE investment projects; Policy recommendations (K2) for suitable policies for CE investments across Europe; Circular Investor guide (K3) for increasing investor trust; Community of Practice (K4), a knowledge exchange platform for CE investments promoters; Business cases (K5) to allow the replication of CE solutions and the process of accessing finance; Pipeline of CE investment opportunities (K6) for PDA support after the project.

Overcoming the challenge of finding initial customers is a significant obstacle for the commercialization of innovative solutions developed by SMEs, particularly EIC awardees (EICs). This challenge is especially pronounced when the target market involves public administration or large private corporations (Buyers). To mitigate these challenges and broaden the scope of innovation procurement in Europe, InnoMatch will facilitate the co-creation and proof-of-concept demonstration of EIC innovations, focusing on addressing the unmet needs of selected buyers. InnoMatch will achieve this by fostering collaboration between EICs and buyers, with a specific focus on ensuring successful solutions are adopted by the buyer following the pilot phase, which may not always be the case. The offered support includes not just the identification of needs and the facilitation of connections between EICs and buyers for pilot deployment, but also strategies to enhance the likelihood of adoption by buyers and accelerate the commercial advancement of EICs. To fulfil this vision, InnoMatch will invest €2.28M in grants to EICs (76% of project budget), supporting 38 pilots which will be distributed through two types of open calls: OC#1: Call for EIC+Buyer: EICs apply together with pre-identified buyer; OC#2 EICs: EICs apply with a solution to a pre-defined challenge, which has been identified by at least 2 separate and independent buyers. The identification of the Buyers challenges will follow a specific methodology which includes a OC#2 Buyers, capacity building, workshops that aim to aggregate individual needs & expectations into a common challenge definition and, ends up with the signature of a sub-grant agreement. The team -F6S, ICLEI, TBM and CIV- 1) has wide network of buyers; 2) worked with EIC community & corporates; 3) experience in FSTP (+€80m, +180 calls & +7k awardees), 4) Innovation Procurement with +10 EU projects in the domain; 5) delivered business & mentorship programmes.

Effective investment and financing opportunities for circular economy projects in Europe are still few and far in between. Investors need to gain trust in circular economy projects. Projects need to become less risky and bankable, based on new and re-designed finance solutions and business models. Transaction costs need to be decreased and the private finance community needs to be engaged to address legal, administrative and market challenges. The DEFINITE-CCRI project establishes a deal engine, providing technical, financial and circular economy expertise through local project development assistance in an unprecedented and streamlined process to cities, regions and project developers. The deal engine will be built with investors and finance partners and the goal to launch investments in four circular economy projects of up to EUR 20 million investment volume per project, amounting to a total portfolio volume of up to EUR 80 million. The DEFINITE-CCRI will demonstrate the bankability of high-impact circularity projects and increases maturity and investor trust in circular economy innovation. It closes the gap between project developers in cities and regions on one side, and investors and finance partners on the other. The DEFINITE-CCRI project co-creates and proves an end-to-end PDA process, aggregating risk-mitigation, EU Taxonomy compliance, circularity criteria and technical and financial engineering in a single project development service for the CCRI’s service portfolio. Partners commit to operate the deal-engine sustainably beyond the project lifetime. This will inject the financial, technical and managerial know-how into urban circular transitions and ultimately contribute to lower virgin non-renewable material use, lower GHG emissions and more just and inclusive circular employment in line with the European Green Deal, the Circular Economy Action Plan and the Bioeconomy Strategy.

NetworkNature will establish a European and global platform allowing all interested stakeholders to access and contribute cutting-edge, innovative knowledge and expertise on nature-based solutions (NBS). Our consortium represents all relevant stakeholder groups and has access to a range of related networks. We have a strong track record and extensive expertise on this topic in terms of engagement, content, technical know-how and involvement in relevant policy processes at European Union (EU) and global level. This allows us to maximise the EU’s potential to become a global leader in deploying innovative NBS to address societal challenges, building on the ongoing work of all Horizon 2020 and BiodivERsA-funded NBS projects as well as relevant other initiatives and programmes in Europe and beyond. The project’s legacy will be ensured through establishing a sustainable platform structure that responds to the needs of the NBS community of innovators based on a sound and stable business model; providing support to and strengthening the NBS community, particularly small and medium enterprises, practitioners and policy-makers, to foster market uptake as well as the transfer and application of innovative NBS; by providing targeted dialogue opportunities across Europe and in regions, guidance and capacity building as well as using advocacy as vehicle to nurture NBS through policy, research and practice, particularly for design and standardisation; and, finally, by building on existing global initiatives to continue enhancing international cooperation to upscale the implementation of NBS. NetworkNature will help transform the EU’s vision of becoming a leader for NBS into reality through a comprehensive, up-to-date, open, user-oriented platform for NBS, building on the dynamic, but to date less streamlined development across the involved stakeholders, projects, existing platforms and policies in the EU over the past years.