Through tailored expert guidance, the programme connected local and regional authorities with experienced mentors to address specific challenges, exchange practical knowledge and identify concrete ways to move from planning to implementation. Participants included Poltava Region (Ukraine), Gacko (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Møre and Romsdal Fylkeskommune (Norway), Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole (France), Central Finland and the City of Stavanger (Finland). 

According to participating mentees, a key strength of the programme was its hands-on and personalised approach. Participants particularly appreciated the opportunity to work directly with experts to assess their circular economy readiness, refine priorities and to co-design tailored implementation pathways.  

The mentoring sessions combined strategic guidance with practical tools and real-life examples. Topics covered included circular business models in the agri-food sector, waste management, circular construction and stakeholder engagement and access to interregional investment instruments. 

For several cities and regions, the mentoring process helped transform broad ideas into more concrete outputs and future project. 

In Kokkola, Finland, the mentoring programme supported the City’s Construction Unit in developing a circular economy roadmap for the construction sector.  

Before joining the programme, Kokkola had already launched several pilot initiatives related to circular construction. However, the city lacked an overarching framework to connect these initiatives and define longer-term priorities. “We started this mentoring with an abstract idea. But in the end, we got concrete results because we had concrete discussions with our CCRI mentors,” explained Sungbok Song, Office Architect in the Construction Unit of the City of Kokkola. 

Rather than delivering recommendations “from above”, the roadmap was co-developed through close cooperation and direct exchanges between mentors and city representatives during the mentoring sessions. International examples of circular construction projects presented also helped Kokkola explore different implementation options adapted to its own context. 

Additional discussions explored the conditions needed to establish a regional building material bank, together with neighbouring municipalities, highlighting the importance of regional cooperation to scale circular solutions. 

This programme is particularly well suited to cities and regions that are at an earlier stage of their circular economy transition or still developing their own circularity pathways. 

Overall, the first mentoring round demonstrated the value of tailored, practice-oriented support in helping Europe’s cities and regions accelerate their circular economy transitions and move from strategy to implementation.  

Feedback from the first round also identified opportunities to strengthen future editions of the programme, including additional mentoring sessions, clearer onboarding and more opportunities for follow-up exchanges between participating cities and regions.