CICERONE was an EU-funded Horizon 2020 project (grant ID 820707) focused on advancing circular economy initiatives through collaborative programming. It ran from November 2018 to March 2021, coordinated by EIT Climate-KIC in Spain, with a total EU contribution of about €2 million.
Main Objective
The core goal was to establish a sustainable platform uniting programme owners, research organizations, and diverse stakeholders—like civil society, industry, SMEs, cities, and investors—to drive efficient circular economy research, development, and innovation (RDI). This platform aimed to address national and regional diversity via benchmarking, stakeholder mapping, and consultation mechanisms, ultimately reducing fragmentation in priorities, funding, and legal frameworks.
Strategic Objectives
- Map the state-of-the-art through benchmarking to identify synergies, gaps, duplications, and best practices in circular economy RDI.
- Develop a prioritisation methodology, culminating in a Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA), ex-ante impact assessments, and a policy toolkit for decision-makers.
- Define the future platform’s governance, legal frameworks, and financial sustainability model to ensure longevity beyond the project end.
Key Deliverables
Key outputs included stakeholder consultations, a benchmarking report on RDI priorities and mechanisms, the SRIA for joint circular economy programming, policy recommendations with best practices, and foundational elements for the ongoing EU Circular Cooperation Hub platform. These were designed to foster systemic collaboration toward net-zero goals aligned with the EU Green Deal.
KPIs and Performance Indicators
Specific public KPIs were not detailed in project summaries, but success hinged on metrics like stakeholder engagement levels, platform adoption post-project, SRIA implementation uptake by programme owners, and identified improvements in RDI synergies or gap closures. Sustainability of the platform was a key target indicator.
