April 2022

Welcome to the 2nd Newsletter of the FRONTSH1P project

This second issue of the FRONTSH1P newsletter focuses on work package 2 of our project, which deals with the Regional Systemic Circular Economy Approach. The five articles on WP2 give you an overview of the task and central issues within, such as the definition of Circular Regional Clusters, explore some of the tools being developed – the Regional Booster Toolkit and Mapping -, and lastly describe some of the issues and barriers faced during the work, as well as some of the developments along the way (such as the need to develop a common glossary). Finally, our coordinator reports on past events where we had the opportunity to present FRONTSH1P.

WP2: the Regional Systemic Circular Economy Approach

This article presents to you work package 2 of FRONTSH1P, which formally involves 24 partners – although in fact all 34 partners of the project will be involved in the implementation of the work package. The work on the Regional Systemic Circular Economy Approach spans all 48 months of the entire project duration. With 477 person months, it is also the largest work package and crucial for the success of the entire project.

Developing a Regional Circular Economy Governance Model – Defining Circular Regional Clusters

An important task in WP2 and the whole FRONTSH1P project is the definition of an effective policy framework and governance model for the regional circular cluster to be established. The first logical step in this endeavour was to define what Circular Regional Clusters (CRC) are.

Regional Booster Toolkit

The circular economy is a concept that aims at the rational use of resources and at the limitation of negative environmental impact of produced products. The implementation of the circular economy in the region in turn, must be understood as a comprehensive process.

Regional Booster Mapping

The FRONTSH1P Digital Platform for collecting and sharing data on waste, its producers, recycling technologies, and local stakeholders aims to build a network of technological, economic, social, and environmental links to provide new insights/inspirations for the development of the circular economy at a regional level. An important step in the platform is the creation of a geodatabase for mapping the Polish region of Łódzkie, which is the subject of this article.

Current Issues and Barriers

Work package 2 of the FRONTSH1P project is currently dealing with a number of issues and faces several obstacles and challenges ahead. Some of them we present in this article.

Commissioning of the FRONTSH1P at Events and Workshops

In the first months of the project, we had the opportunity to introduce FRONTSH1P to many stakeholders by participating in three dissemination events.