On November 4th-5th, 2025, the 3rdGeneral Assembly meeting of the CircSyst project) was hosted in the city of Lahti, Finland. The CircSyst (Circular Systemic Solutions for Plastic, Packaging, Bio-Waste, and Water) project is a 36-month initiative which focuses on accelerating the transition to a circular economy throughout Europe. The project aligns with the European Circular Cities and Regions Initiative (CCRI) to support cities and regions in implementing circular systemic solutions. CircSyst is co-funded by the European Union under the Horizon Europe programme (Grant Agreement number 101135505) and by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) under the Project number 10115627.
The project seeks to demonstrate innovative technological and methodological concepts within three priority value chains outlined within the European Circular Economy Action Plan: Water Management, Biowaste, and Plastics and Packaging. These circular economy concepts are tested in 9 demonstrator sites across 8 European regions: Valencia (Spain – CCRI fellow region), Maribor (Slovenia – CCRI region), Flanders (Belgium – CCRI region), Gotland (Sweden), Paijat-Hame-Lahti (Finland – CCRI region), Castilla La Mancha (Spain – CCRI region), Central Macedonia (Greece), and Central and East Hungary.
Organised by the Finnish partners (University of Helsinki and LAB University of Applied Sciences), the 3rdGeneral Assembly served as a basis to review and share significant progress made by the 32 project partners at Month 18 of the project timeline. The General Assembly opened with welcoming remarks from Dr. Joaquin Vilaplana, CircSyst Project Coordinator from the Instituto Tecnológico de Productos Infantiles y Ocio (AIJU), before project partners shared key updates.
As part of these updates, Isle Utilities (ISLE), leader of the Exploitation Results and Impact work package, shared progress on the potential of the future adoption of the new knowledge generated, the innovative solutions and approaches developed within the CircSyst project. Dr. Beatriz Altamira Algarra, Consultant at ISLE, emphasised the key role of intellectual property rights (IPR) strategies in protecting innovative practices and its role within their future adoption.
Following this, Beatriz detailed some of the key overarching updates of the market assessments for the 9 demonstrator sites as well as a summary on the market insights (opportunities and barriers) identified during the Regional Workshops held in Month 12 of the project.
In addition, participants had the opportunity to visit several facilities showcasing best practices in circular economy innovation. Project partners toured the LAB University of Applied Sciences research laboratories, which focus on circular economy and food pilot solutions. The CircSyst consortium also visited the Kujala Waste Center, operated by Salpakierto Ltd, where municipal waste management systems and strategies promoting a circular economy are implemented. The final visit was at the Lahti Aqua WWT facilities, where the project partners learnt how a single wastewater treatment infrastructure treats both municipal and industrial wastewater.
What is next?
As CircSyst enters the second half of the project, several demonstrator sites are scaling up their designs and operations, while others are beginning to generate preliminary results and outcomes. In the coming months, partners - supported by ISLE - will develop their final strategies and address the IPR of their innovations to maximise their potential adoption after the project finalises.
The 4th CircSyst General Assembly will take place in May 2026 in Budapest, Hungary, hosted by UGRINPACK, MGFÜ and INNOSKART. During the meeting, partners will review progress to date and outline future actions to further promote circular systemic solutions across Europe.
About Circsyst
The CircSyst project is co-funded by Horizon Europe (the European Union's key funding program for research and innovation) under the Grant Agreement number 101135505 and the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) under the Project number 10115627. The project has a budget of over €10.2 million. The solutions developed target three priority value chains identified in the European Circular Economy Action Plan:
- Wastewater reuse
- Bio-waste valorisation
- Food packaging waste valorisation
The project is coordinated by AIJU - Instituto Tecnológico de Productos Infantiles y Ocio (Spain).
The CircSyst project brings together a diverse range of organisations, including research and technology institutes, universities, regional development agencies, private companies, local and regional authorities, as well as policy and business development organisations.
Project partners include: ACTECO, AQUATEC, AIDIMME, Aquadin, Aquafin, Cabka, CERTH, DBH InnoHub, EPSAR, EURADA, HIDRAQUA, Innoskart, Komunala, Agriculture Institute of Slovenia (KIS), LPernía, LAB University of Applied Sciences, Masoutis, Hungarian Economic Development Agency (MGFU), Region Gotland, Research Institute of Sweden (RISE), Plastimodul, Riba-roja del Túria, RDA Podravje, RIPAY, UgrinPack, University of Helsinki, Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), Valencian Institute of Business Competitiveness (IVACE), VITO, ZSI (Centre for Social Innovation) and ISLE.
