Funding opportunities for the circular economy

Technology Industries of Finland organised a workshop that discussed the opportunities of EU's Horizon 2020 programme. Spinverse experts Markku Heino and Pirjo Pasanen were invited to give a talk on the topic. In their talk they emphasized that a company must first have a viable business idea, which can be developed into a 100 M€ business.

When there is a good business idea, financing channels can be found. EU's support divides the risk, allows testing, piloting, and, above all, cooperation with partners. This kind of funding can support the development of business ideas, partnerships and allows to be present in the emerging sectors.

Successful projects in Finland have included e.g. projects relating to packaging materials, coating methods, pilot technologies (e.g. wave energy, ICT), health technology partnerships, as well as new forms of utilization of bio-materials and production scaling.

The workshop also discussed the EU's waste directive and the eco-design legislation, which are in the preparation stage. There are still a lot of problems for the circular economy both in the EU and the national legislation. The Technology Industries of Finland's aim is to dismantle those barriers against the circular economy.