H4C Europe project will create a European Community of Practice (ECoP). It will provide a community, knowledge platform, and exchange structures that will help the existing and future hubs in creation, management, and growth, by overcoming barriers to IS/I-US/C. The ECoP is set up to be self-sustaining. 10 existing Hubs have committed to join as ECoP Founding Members. The ECoP will preserve the findings of IS/I-US/C research and innovation projects, especially those funded by the EC and member states. It will organize a continuous exchange of ideas and best practices and facilitate in-depth exchanges between experts to identify bottlenecks, evaluate the outcomes of related projects, and propose innovative approaches to overcome bottlenecks. Possible topics include the financing and operation of IS infrastructures, matching demand and supply in IS and I-US, sharing benefits, cross-border exchange of materials, water, and waste-water systems, regulatory issues in the use of secondary raw materials, the tension between re-use and use of waste as feedstock, to name a few. Digitalization is a transversal enabling aspect of IS/I-US/C and the usage of digital tools will be an important aspect of each expert group. In line with the call and to achieve its vision, the CSA will work along four axes: 1) Sustainable Community building and establishment of an IT knowledge platform as a tool, 2) Consolidation and creation of available knowledge by analysis of the state of the art, in-depth discussions of leading experts, and field trials of business models and financial strategies a.o. for large-scale demonstrators, 3) Development of a KPI toolkit for the assessment of the maturity of IS/I-US/C regional initiatives towards H4C and independent evaluation of H4Cs as candidates for lighthouse projects, as well as the elaboration of policy recommendations, 4) Promotion of the H4C concept, societal engagement, and policy recommendations.

CIRCULAR FOAM aims at the demonstration of a territorial cross-sectorial systemic solution for the circularity of high performance plastics from diverse applications on the example of rigid polyurethane foams used as insulation in refrigerators and in construction. The waste streams will be upcycled chemically, which means that they will be valorised to become new virgin-equivalent feedstock for the chemical industry to produce new high performance plastics. In this way, it will become possible to replace limited fossil-based resources by the renewable waste-based ones, thus not only reducing waste, but also becoming more sustainable and making a step forward to climate neutrality. The project and the demonstration are targeting a concrete implementation of the solution in question in the selected regions after the project and developing a blueprint for both the geographical transferability to other regions and for the technological extension of the circularity principle to a number of further waste materials from further applications. We consider here two carefully selected regions: NRW/Germany, Silesia/PL and Greater Amstedam Region. The consortium is composed of all actors required to close the circular value chain (process industries, manufacturing, waste management, technology providers, incl. also research partners, logistics, social scientists and economist working with with public sector and citizens. After practical implementation and replication in EU of the systemic solution, following reductions will have been attained by 2040: 586.000 tons per year less waste, 18,6 mln. tons less CO2 emission; 118 mln EUR less cost for incineration for the PU producers. The system will signifficantly contribute to resilience in regions.

United Circles project will demonstrate, with 46 partners across 14 countries + 1 international body, three Industrial-Urban Symbiosis value chains, to upcycle of urban Food Waste, urban Wastewater Solids, and urban Construction & Demolition Waste (C&DW). To close urban and industrial water loops to reduce freshwater use in drought prone regions, and integrate energy co-generation technology in upcycling pathways. Made possible by advancing innovative technologies from TRL5 to TRL7 in combined integrated value chains, to enable zero waste cities and a decarbonised Process Industry. The value chains cover collection, sorting, upcycling and production of new upcycled products. To demonstrate how: 1) a demolish building’s C&DW can be transformed into a new 2 storey 3D printed building with upcycled low-carbon cement, cement bonded particle boards, and insulation foam; 2) a waste-water treatment plant can become a resource recovery centre for all materials, water and energy, in an integrated manner. By supplying high quality gas to the local gas grid, by providing upcycled cellulose as industrial feedstock to pulp & paper industries, and by providing clean water and fertilizer for agriculture; 3) food waste in the form of used cooking oil can be upcycled in a first application of 2nd generation biorefinery to create novel fully biodegradable and food waste origin bioplastic products for complete replacement of fossil fuels. The United Circles 3 value chain demonstrators will each be integrated in a Hub 4 Circularity, that will underpin their Industrial-Urban networks governance and evolution, using advanced governance frameworks, feasibility towards financing methodologies, digital tools, social and environmental innovations, and a material and products observatory. The H4C in the proposal will enable business to territory plans, with their regional stakeholder network, that seek to expand the demonstrator integrated technologies to higher TRL levels.