The EU-28 total waste generation in 2014 was 2598M tones, the highest since 2004, 33.5% of which was from the construction sector, being also one of the larger consumers of inorganic raw materials. Construction activities are mainly localized in urban areas where by 2050 about 86% of the developed world is expected to live. CINDERELLA project aims to develop a new Circular Economy Business Model (CEBM) for use of secondary raw materials (SRM) in urban areas, connecting different industries, the construction sector and municipal services, decision makers and the general public with the support of CinderOSS, a “One-Stop-Shop” service, articulated in (i) an on-line ICT platform for tracking and modelling the urban waste-to-product flows, on-line marketing and sharing knowledge and information along the value chain (ii) production and marketing of (SRM) based construction products and (iii) building with SRM based construction products supported by building information modelling (BIM). Different streams of waste will be exploited in the project, i.e. construction and demolition waste, industrial wastes, heavy fraction from municipal solid waste and sewage sludge, mostly of them currently landfilled and/or incinerated. Their suitability for use for building materials will be demonstrated through large scale demonstration activities in Slovenia, Croatia and Spain while the ICT platform will be demonstrated in Slovenia, Croatia, Spain, Poland, Italy and The Netherlands. The project will contribute to 20% reduction of environmental impacts along the value and supply chain, reducing virgin material exploitation and converting wastes to products. Sustainability of CEBM will be proven with the environmental, economic and social assessment through whole life (LCA, LCC and S-LCA). The pre-feasibility analysis of the proposed CEBM indicates an increase of recycling by 30% of CDW, 13% of industrial waste, 100% of heavy fraction and 25% of sewage sludge with a net profit of 18%.

The CATALYST project “European VET Excellence Centre for Leading Sustainable Systems and Business Transformation” is designed with strong vision and motivation to contribute to realisation of the European Green Deal and the new Industrial and SME Strategies.The main goal is with the establishment of united CATALYST Centre of Vocational Excellence in 5 countries to give support, create an educational offer to tackle personal and organisational development, and to embrace transformation in SMEs, enabling and inspiring them to re-think and re-design their business models, co-creating and sharing between educational and business organisations. The project fosters innovation and applied knowledge in approaches of learning and tailor-made VET program via the “Enable component”, as well as support of SMEs to create sustainable businesses via the “Inspire component”.The main project outputs are: 1. 5 CoVEs and CATALYST Network anchored the European VET eco-system;2. 70 VET courses for up-skilling professionals and students;3. Co-create and disseminate applied knowledge inspiring business-education partnerships involving students, professionals and SMEs;4. Create CATALYST Platform which will unite all CoVEs on a European level;5. Implement VET trainings, pilot-project with SMEs and applied joint research projects in selected sectors according to the national S3;6. Raise awareness of the potential CATALYST CoVEs have and increase the demand and attractiveness of VET.Activities are focused on learning opportunities, applied joint research projects, innovative training methodologies and tools and support for SMEs on relevant topics, where more than 5000 beneficiaries (professionals, students and SMEs) can benefit. The desired impact of the project is the established CoVEs to be ‘catalyst’ on national, regional and European level, ‘enable’ change and ‘inspire’ and transformation of individuals and SMEs toward more sustainable systems and societies.

FIC-FIGHTERS is a local democracy project. It is the search for new economic models deliberately agreed to manage of waste that harms the natural and cultural heritage. It is a space for discussion on the adoption of alternatives for wastes that has been accumulating near our cities for decades. The project will involve different local actors, industries, authorities, SMEs, RTD centers, and universities to inclusively scale up to TRL6-7 waste recovery processes under the premises of the circular economy, focusing on the valorization of phosphogypsum waste (PG) to generate sustainable raw materials for use in the paper, cement, batteries, fertilizers and detergents industries. For 48 months, the different actors, in cooperation with the CCRI, will be involved in making the new circular business models a reality. The project will: 1) Build a mobile pilot plant (TRL7) based on optimised results and digital twin of the processes to demonstrate the sustainable production of raw materials (sodium sulfate, REE and P, aluminum hydroxide, ammonium sulfate and precipitated calcium carbonate) for different industries, starting from phosphogypsum and other wastes. 2) Create a PG forum for local discussions and develop local workshops in each of the 6 case studies, including citizen participation, addressing socio-economic, environmental and regulation aspects of the new circular business models developed to become a reality and reaching trust and acceptance. 3) Address the flexibility and replicability of the valorization processes by involving 7 case studies and create the first known PG Exploitation Portal aiming to identify, characterise, and reach all European cities with same problematic. 4) Contribute to knowledge exchange in clustering and CCRI events; creating a Community of Practice and making the results of the project publicly available and exploitable, addressing IP protection. 5) Provide guidelines to reach circularity based on LCA, LCC, social and H&S studies.