For Guimarães, it was the opportunity to increase synergies with other cities, promoting the circulation of technical and scientific knowledge between partners and developing common projects to improve the transition to circular economy in the sectors that we are working in. 
 

Cities are important vehicles for changing behaviour and leading the transformation of their countries, and the CCRI as a network helps us to work together.

We are looking for technical assistance from collaborating organisations to search for funding opportunities that can help us to implement our action plan for a circular economy. As a politician, I can say that the circular economy challenges us to open our minds to innovation, and research and development in order to promote a just and sustainable circular transition adapted to our city context. Cities play an essential role in the green transition, and we must improve our synergies to achieve our goals.

Under our Guimarães 2030 Governance Ecosystem, which gathers academia, citizens and private and public sector, we started to work on the circular economy concept back in 2015. Our focus was to set up solutions: 1) adapted to our main challenges identified in our Waste City Map), 2) bringing research and innovation to develop new projects, and 3) developing a strong awareness campaign focused on citizens and the younger generation. We want to share our experience in these three pillars, particularly how we can get the green transition engaging and involving citizens and put them at the centre of our strategies.

To find out more about Guimarães, visit their profile on our website.