RIVCircular Matchmaking Platform

The Federal State of Brandenburg – one of sixteen Federal States in Germany – is located in the Eastern part of Germany. Besides its capital Potsdam, it has three other independent cities and 14 counties. Together with Berlin, which it surrounds completely, it forms the Berlin/Brandenburg metropolitan region, of which there are eleven in total in Germany. Most of Brandenburg’s 2.6 million inhabitants live in the suburban area of Berlin. The GDP of the state was 97 million EUR in 2023, accounting for 2.3 % of the total German economic output, putting Brandenburg in the lower range of the country. Brandenburg is a mostly rural area, but with a varied industrial base including engineering, steelmaking, metalworking, paper production, food processing, petroleum refining, mining, and the production of energy from lignite. The Brandenburg-Berlin region and especially Potsdam is the site of an emerging cluster of biotechnology research-and-development activities. It consists of three public universities, four public colleges and different non-university science organisations, such as Fraunhofer Institutes (especially IAP), Leibnitz-Institutes (especially IGZ, ATB, IHP), and Max-Planck Institutes.

Innlandet is Norway’s leading bioeconomy region and plays a central role in the RIVCircular partnership as a largely rural innovation ecosystem. The region is home to strong knowledge communities in bio-based circular economy, sustainable construction, and cyber security.

Through its smart specialization strategy, the Inland Portfolio (Innlandsporteføljen), Innlandet is driving a transition towards a more sustainable and innovation-driven economy. The strategy focuses on strengthening knowledge-intensive industries, fostering collaboration between research and business, and developing cutting-edge solutions within bioeconomy, circular value chains, and digitalization.

The Regional Innovation Center of the Košice Region is a bridge between entrepreneurs and innovations in the region. Our main responsibility is to implement the regional innovation strategy and stimulate the further development of the innovation ecosystem.

The ICKK develops and maintains sustainable concepts where the regional innovation ecosystem is continuously developed by the interaction of all key stakeholders within the innovation triangle. It establishes systematic links between secondary education, universities and business creation programs.

 A sustainable circular economy is part of the vision defined in the Environmental Policy Strategy of the Slovak Republic until 2030. The circular economy is based on the sustainable use of resources in a closed cycle from their acquisition, use in production, distribution, consumption and subsequent reuse of materials. One of the concepts of the circular economy is the use of local resources by linking them to local consumption. In this context, the priority focuses on supporting local agriculture and other aspects of the circular economy, such as sustainable waste management and water management.

The circular economy strategy for the Košice Region was designed adopting an interactive and integrative approach by actively involving the stakeholder’s group.

Since 2021, four priority domains of smart specialization have been studied in the Kyiv region:

1. Production of innovative food products with improved consumer qualities (functional food).

2. Development of energy-efficient solutions based on alternative energy sources.

3. Innovative products for construction, design and everyday life.

4. Bioactive substances and pharmaceuticals for human health and beauty.

The Development Strategy of the Kyiv Region for 2021-2027 provides for the implementation of tasks related to effective waste management, support for innovative developments and the introduction of the latest technologies in the field of waste processing and the return of resource-valuable materials to the economy.

The Kyiv region has successful examples of implementing the principles of a circular economy, in particular, in the textile industry, which faces the problem of processing textile waste.