Key facts
Project title | Promoting collaboration for sustainable and circular use of bioresources across agriculture, forestry, and aquaculture |
Acronym | CIRCLE |
Duration | 01/10/2021 – 30/04/2024 |
Promoter | Baltic Studies Centre |
Partners | Institute of Agricultural Resources and Economics, RURALIS, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Vilnius University |
Implementing agency | State Education Development Agency |
Funding source | Baltic Research Programme, EEA Grants, Project No. EEZ/BPP/VIAA/2021/9 |
Total funding granted | 984 224 EUR |

About CIRCLE in other languages
Objective
The project aims to develop an interdisciplinary perspective on the circular economy in the Baltic-Nordic region by integrating insights from sociology, economics, philosophy, political science, and environmental science.
The emphasis is placed on the use of by-products (bioresources) generated as part of primary production in agriculture, forestry, and aquaculture and across the sectoral boundaries to explore the underlying models of socially- and commercially-driven collaborations, and the factors facilitating and hindering the development and wider use of circular practices and collaborative arrangements thereof.
Expected outcomes
- Interdisciplinary evidence-based knowledge on innovative circular business models, collaborative arrangements, and policies across and between agriculture, forestry, and aquaculture that can lead to a sustainable use of bioresources.
- Overview of bioresources utilised, and the factors that enable and hamper intra- and cross-sectoral circularity.
- Sustainability assessment criteria for circular business models to assess their socio-economic and environmental benefits.
- Pathways for sustainable and ethical circular business models and sectoral linkages, and identified supportive governance and collaborative arrangements to facilitate transitions to circular bioeconomy.
- Wider societal impacts, including contribution to policies and industry, through a range of practice- and policy-oriented outputs promoting intra- and cross-sectoral circular solutions in bioresource use.
- Strengthened research capacity of participating organisations and advanced research on the circular economy in the Baltic-Nordic region.