Kick-off meeting of CURIOS project
On June 17-18, 2024, a kick-off meeting of the EU project Interreg Central Europe, CURIOST, took place. The project partners met at the first meeting of the CUROST project on the campus of one of the partners, the University of Economics in Bratislava, in order to get acquainted and establish the program and principles of cooperation during the coming 30 months. The project was officially launched on June 1, 2024.
The partners in the project are:
- Business Upper Austria, Österreich – lead partner
- ConPlusUltra Ltd, Österreich
- University of Economics in Bratislava, Slovensko
- Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Magyarország
- South Poland Cleantech Cluster Ltd., Poland
- STEP RI science and technology park, Hrvatska
- Development and Educational Center, Hrvatska
- MESAP Innovation Cluster, Italy
- Science and Technology Park, Italy
- Bayern Innovativ,Deutschland
- Cluster of Environmental, Deutschland
Purpose of the CURIOST project
CURIOST is based on the assumption that the circular economy is a key factor in sustainable product development. To address the numerous challenges in the Central European manufacturing sector, the project aims to enable small and medium-sized companies to realize their potential for innovative product development and benefit from appropriate business models in four key sectors that are of high importance in the partner regions; mechanics and mechatronics, packaging, plastics and construction.
At the beginning, project participants focus on the user/stakeholder aspect, which includes determining the current state of affairs in the field of circular economy in partner countries (AT, DE, IT, HR, HU, PL, SK) in order to later relate it to to the current situation. It is part of Work Package 1 (WP1) of the CURIOST project and is led by the German partner, Bayern Innovtiv (BI) in Munich. All partners have an influence on the creation of this package through their national activities.
The aim is to interview at least three experts from each country in each sector (mechanics and mechatronics, packaging, plastics and construction). Interview guidelines were prepared in the form of a guide in order to prepare questions for experts in such a way that they could later be analyzed and applied in an organized way based on defined criteria.
Basic assumptions on which the guide is based
The desire to promote a circular economy is caused by the fact that society and companies are currently undergoing (or need to undergo) a transformation process towards the use of raw materials in a more environmentally friendly manner and a significant reduction in emissions. For many, this is still undeveloped territory. There is currently no existing universal recipe for the transformation towards sustainable development that would definitely apply in a circular economy. Individual solutions and procedures are tested to gradually obtain a general strategy, like a large puzzle. Within CURIOST, the first step is to establish the current reality of the circular economy, which may be quite different in each partner country, in order to establish a solid basis for further project activities.