The Circular Cities and Regions Initiative: Three years on
Published on 03.02.2025
As the Circular Cities and Regions Initiative (CCRI) concludes its third year, it is time to look back on the progress the Initiative made to enable cities’ and regions’ transitions to the circular economy.
In this article we explore the key achievements of the CCRI in 2024 and outline what the CCRI is doing next to help Europe’s cities and regions make the circular economy a reality.

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In 2024 the CCRI community grew, involving more cities and regions and including new stakeholders
In the past year alone, the initiative has grown the number of its beneficiary cities and regions and the number of supporting organisations continues to grow fast too, including new stakeholders!
As of autumn 2024, the CCRI community has expanded to 142 cities and regions, ranging from small to large public authorities, doubling since autumn 2023.
The CCRI also counts 300 organisations, dedicated to supporting them in their circular journey. The Initiative is proud to have broadened its circular community, which now includes new types of stakeholders from finance, industry, SMEs and startups alongside advisors and policymakers.
More-complete support towards the circular transition
In response to the growing CCRI community’s needs and interests, the initiative has expanded and diversified its support offer by enriching the CCRI Knowledge Hub, launching the CCRI Mentoring Programme, and setting up the CCRI Communities of Practice.
These new support programmes work alongside the existing Coordination and Support Office, enabling the initiative to help with all elements/steps of circular economy implementation.
Firstly, the CCRI Knowledge Hub consolidates and expands the knowledge base available to the CCRI community, focusing in particular on four key areas: public engagement, innovation and technology, impact evaluation, and business models and financial support.
Also launched in 2024, the CCRI Mentoring Programme targets cities and regions in need of expert mentoring. Mentoring sessions aim to identify the specific challenges that cities and regions are facing today, focused on the four key areas of the Knowledge Hub.
The CCRI is now launching the Communities of Practice as the newest extension of the CCRI. The Communities of Practice allow stakeholders to lead the way in the transition through focus group discussions on important issues faced by cities and regions.
With its collection of diverse support services, the CCRI now offers a more complete range of support to cities and regions focused on knowledge, exchange and support.
The 3rd CCRI workshop connected circular economy projects with investors
The CCRI made a decisive shift in 2024 towards implementing and accelerating the circular transition by organising more funding and financing opportunities.
In November 2024, the 3rd Coordination and Support Workshop welcomed over 100 circular economy stakeholders, becoming the first event in CCRI history to involve investors alongside cities, regions and advisors.
Many CCRI Projects are now reaching the implementation stage and are seeking funding and financing opportunities to make their circular systemic solutions a reality.
The event featured opportunities for cities and regions to identify investment and advisory services as well as to present to potential investors their (close-to) commercially viable solutions. This helped many circular economy projects get the funding necessary to implement and scale their innovative solutions for the circular economy.
Implementing and accelerating the circular transition through funding and financing
The inclusion of investors in the CCRI’s 3rd workshop highlighted the community’s progress in the implementation of circular solutions in 2024. The CCRI is committed to further bringing cities’ and regions’ solutions towards implementation and financing.
But the Initiative also scaled up its work through its collaboration with the European Investment Bank (EIB), a financing-focused CCRI partner.
The EIB’s Circular City Centre (C3) concluded its pilot phase in 2023, and expanded its services in 2024, sharing guidance documents and tools, participating in thematic meetings and activities, and sharing financial expertise.
This partnership enabled the CCRI to offer more, new financing opportunities to cities and regions, helping improve the maturity and viability of their investment projects.
The C3 initiative also contributes to joint webinars and other funding and financing events, work which is set to continue into 2025.
CCRI continued supporting matchmaking and knowledge sharing
Through the CCRI’s four Thematic Working Groups (TWGs) European cities and regions discuss practical solutions to implement circular systemic solutions.
Each TWG supports cities and regions in their specific thematic area, including: construction and circular buildings; circular resource management; industrial symbiosis and circular economy in industries; and circular bioeconomy.
In 2024, each TWG shared relevant tools and knowledge in their thematic areas. And in 2025, the TWGs will develop an assessment report, summarising its exchanges, good practices and policy recommendations.
Learn more about the TWGs on the CCRI website.
The CCRI supported Projects’ successes from idea to implementation
Over the past year, the CCRI Coordination and Support Office gave 1-to-1 tailored support to 12 selected cities and regions (Pilots).
The 24 CCRI-related Projects also progressed in 2024, identifying relevant opportunities for funding and giving advisory support or project development assistance as needed.
Having followed clear roadmaps for their circular solutions, and with the CCRI Coordination and Support Office’s insights into EU policy and legislation for help, many Pilots’ solutions are now starting to see results.
Last year we showcased these accomplishments in our CCRI Success Story article series published on the news section of the CCRI website, and in the ‘Meet the CCRI Stakeholders’ interview article series, which explain the Initiative’s support to cities and regions in the implementation of their circular solutions.
Stakeholders engaged in the circular transition
More broadly, in 2024 we also saw the importance of stakeholder participation in the circular economy, highlighted by the CCRI Knowledge Hub’s two impactful workshops and related communications.
The workshops focused on engaging the public in circularity and explored innovative circular business models.
The workshops emphasised the vital role of community involvement in circular economy actions, showing how stakeholder engagement can drive circular initiatives within cities and regions.
Learn more about the outcomes of the workshops in the summary article.
More unique opportunities to come in 2025
Looking forward into 2025, the CCRI’s commitment to fostering sustainable and resilient cities and regions is stronger than ever before.
Our upcoming CCRI Conference will be the definitive event of 2025, serving as an essential opportunity to showcase the achievements and impact of the CCRI across Europe.
Thanks to our partnership with the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform, the Conference will enable more circular economy stakeholders to meet and connect than ever before.
Now is the time to implement and accelerate the circular transition. So, in 2025 the CCRI will continue offering spaces for in-depth knowledge sharing and providing tailored support to help cities and regions address their local needs.
This year the Initiative’s more complete support offer will make the complex challenge of implementation as simple as possible for cities and regions, which are now supported by a larger and stronger CCRI community, the Knowledge Hub and Communities of Practice.
As we enter the fourth year of the Initiative, the CCRI would like to thank all members of the community for their continued support and efforts to make the circular economy a reality across Europe’s cities and regions.
To repeat the message shared in the 3rd CCRI workshop:
‘Now is the time for implementation. We are here to direct you to the right door and ensure you get the best out of the CCRI.’ (Lucie Blondel, European Commission).
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