Promoting collaboration for sustainable and circular use of bioresources across agriculture, forestry, and aquaculture (CIRCLE)

About this project

<p><span style="font-size: 10pt"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif"><span style="color: #000000">The CIRCLE 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, and examining its all three - social, economic, and environmental - sustainability dimensions. The emphasis is placed on the use of byproducts (bio-resources) generated as part of primary production in agriculture, forestry, and aquaculture within their sub-sectors and across the sectoral boundaries to explore the underlying models of socially- and commercially-driven collaborations between the involved parties and the factors facilitating and hindering the development and wider use of circular practices and collaborative arrangements thereof. The project attends to both supply and demand side of this type of inter- and cross-sectoral circularity of bio-resources and their secondary application in production by investigating producers’ considerations, consumers’ views, and policy implications. This is to be achieved with the application of complementary methods such as literature review, media analysis, qualitative individual and group interviews, national stakeholder and scenario workshops, and cost-benefit analysis. The project will contribute to the growing academic, public, and policy debate at both national and European level on sustainable resource use, and will offer evidence-based knowledge on existing and potential solutions within and across the three sectors under investigation to highlight the role and models of cooperation between different market, civic, and public actors in ensuring effective implementation of circularity. The project’s consortium brings together five academic partners from Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Norway allowing to build new partnerships, advance interdisciplinary collaboration, and contribute to inter-organisational learning and researchers’ training.</span></span></span></p>

Bilateral cooperation results

The CIRCLE project teamed scientists from different disciplines, following the idea that interdisciplinary collaboration enables the complementary use of different scientific perspectives and research methods, leading to a better understanding of complex or so far little recognized and researched phenomena. The CIRCLE project was built on prior research networks among the promoter organization (BSC) and the research institute RURALIS from Norway developed during scholarship exchange visits, participation in conferences, and participation in joint Horizon 2020 research projects SALSA (2016-2020) and AgriLinks (2017-2021). The prior research networks were effectuated and further strengthened and expanded while building the CIRCLE consortium, involving the partners from Estonia and Lithuania, jointly developing the proposal for the Baltic Research Programme and implementing the project once it got funded. Making of- and working in- an interdisciplinary team of researchers of various career stages, experiences and disciplinary backgrounds was essential to strengthening capacity and competence. The interaction among senior researchers, post-doctoral researchers, and PhD students was instrumental. Senior researchers provided guidance and continuity, post-doctoral researchers offered flexibility and filled critical gaps, and PhD students brought fresh perspectives and rigorous academic focus. This dynamic interaction facilitated a resilient and adaptive project environment, enabling effective problem-solving and capacity building.

Project partners

• Ruralis - Institute for Rural and Regional Research Donor project partner· Norway
• Institute of Agricultural Resources and Economics Project partner· Latvia
• Estonian University of Life Sciences Project partner· Estonia
• Vilnius University Project partner· Lithuania