The CIRCLE project was launched during the project’s kick-off meeting on 17-18 October 2021. The meeting brought together all five project partners from four countries: Baltic Studies Centre (Latvia), the Institute of Agricultural Resources and Economics (Latvia), the Institute for Rural and Regional Research (RURALIS) (Norway), the Estonian University of Life Sciences (Estonia) and the Vilnius University (Lithuania).
Over the next two and a half years, the international research project will investigate innovative circular business models, collaborative arrangements, and policies across and between agriculture, forestry, and aquaculture that can lead to a sustainable use of bioresources.
It is the first time that the consortium partners work together in a joint project, and the aims of the meeting were set to get to know each other, reach a common understanding, and set the ground for first activities. The project’s coordinator Talis Tisenkopfs (Baltic Studies Centre) welcomed all participants.
During an introductory round he remembered that the project’s idea was born during a congress of rural sociology in Trondheim in 2019. After a brief overview of the project, Work Package leaders outlined the work planned in each of them. Each presentation was followed by joint discussions that generated first inputs for the future work.
At the second day, Dace Puriņa (Deputy Director and Head of EEA Research Funding Programme Department at the State Education Development Agency), joined the meeting and expressed the Agency’s expectations and support to the CIRCLE project.
The meeting was closed with a joint virtual photo, decisions and a plan for the next steps.
