News and events published on the Eco-innovation Community Platform

• New discussion topic on Environmental policy and regulation discussion forum: What are the factors for success in ‘Payment for Ecosystem Services’ schemes?
• News: Consultation on H2020 R&D work programme on nanotechnologies and biotechnology, and advanced materials, manufacturing and processing
• News: EIT Call for Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC) proposals

The Cleantech Incubation Europe INTERREG IVC project examined the support conditions needed by ‘cleantech’ entrepreneurs and start-ups. One outcome of the project, which concluded in 2014, was a Cleantech Incubation Policy and Practice handbook . Professor Norberto Patrignani of I3P (Innovative Enterprises Incubator, www.i3p.it) of Turin Polytechnic, Italy, who was involved in the project, explains some of the main findings and discusses their application in the northern Italian region of Piedmont.

Two new initiatives, from the European Commission and the Dutch government respectively, aim to eliminate legal barriers that hold up the cross-border trade in raw materials obtained from waste, and illustrate the benefits for the circular economy of cooperation between regulators. This is in line with the EU Action Plan for the Circular Economy, a programme of measures covering the whole cycle: from production and consumption to waste management and the market for secondary raw materials.

A pair of European Union-backed resource efficiency projects teamed up in February for a joint final conference that set out recommendations on the right combination of policies to create an effective framework for a circular economy.