During the last months, Institute of agricultural resources and economics (AREI) has been engaged in numerous activities of the CIRCLE project. First, AREI team in cooperation with Baltic Studies Centre (BSC) has identified and mapped 10 examples of circularity in the bioeconomy sector in Latvia. These examples include intra-sectoral circularity (3 examples) and cross-sectoral circularity (6 examples) as well as mixed circularity (1 example). Agriculture is involved in 8 examples, forestry – in 3 examples, and aquaculture – in 5 examples. Cross-sectoral and mixed examples mainly involve two AFA (agriculture, forestry, aquaculture) sectors (6 examples). However one example involves three AFA sectors. Almost all the examples (9 from 10) involve business (industry) as an actor. Nevertheless, such actors as public bodies, NGOs and research are also involved in several examples.
Second, AREI’s team has contributed to the following topics of the conceptual and analytical framework:
- Bioresource-based circularity & cross-sectorality: this topic deals with circular practices and collaborative arrangements within and between AFA sectors as well as how they bridge into or help bioresources circulate back into AFA from other sectors.
- Business models and collaborative arrangements: this topic discusses fundamentals of circular business models (CBM), business model canvas to present CBM elements and collaborative arrangements in business ecosystem level.
These two topics are a part of 8 topics that constitute an interdisciplinary conceptual and analytical framework which is, in turn, an integral element of Work Package 1.
AREI team also participated in the consortium meeting in Riga in June where it actively contributed to discussions. In addition, AREI team has participated in the regular meetings of CIRCLE partners (both face-to-face and Zoom), actively contributing to discussions and dealing with challenges.
