Adoption of the action plan

The Circular Economy Action Plan for Central Bohemia 2022+ has been signed by the Central Bohemia Deputy Governor for funds, grants and innovation on the 9th of June 2022.

The main goal of the action plan is to initiate projects in Central Bohemia that will implement the principles of circular economy in public and business sector. It will also function as an awareness raising tool and good practice generator.

The overall objective of the COLOR CIRCLE project is to unlock the full potential of circular economy by reinforcing the role and capacities of local authorities thanks to strengthened cooperation with local research communities. The project focuses on rural and small cities areas. It relies on sharing good practices of cooperation between research and local authorities that boost and tool territorial intelligence. COLOR CIRCLE contributes to improve the role of local governance in regional circular economy policies by recognising circular economy as a cross cutting priority, by strengthening the connection between research and local communities and by empowering local authorities.

These objectives are to be achieved through a new programme, where regional entrepreneurs can get advisory services in area of circular economy. This programme will offer specialized consultancy / coaching / mentoring services. The programme will work as follows:

• First step is an entry consultation where the SME presents its interest to the provider (SIC) and together they formulate the actual demand of the SME.
• Based on the demand, the provider will choose appropriate expert from its database of accredited expert in various field. This database will be continuously expanded based on the demand collected from among the SMEs.
• SME will get up to 40 hours of consultancy or coaching or mentoring across an agreed period of time, usually 2-4 months. The expert will acquire knowledge of the SME’s operation and provided necessary advice to help achieve the required change (this service is also called “Phase 1”).
• Following the outcome of Phase 1 and an agreement between the SME, the expert and the provider, the SME can get additional up to 80 hours of services of the expert to further develop necessary change within the company (also called “Phase 2”).,
• The costs of this service will be partially covered by the region and partially by the SME. For the SME, the co-funding is lower in Phase 1 and higher in Phase 2.

Several practices of local and European partners have inspired and contributed to the elaboration of the action plan:

• Circular itineraries using biomimetic canvas (Spain): Service for SMEs supporting their uptake of circular economy principles,
• The circular economy project booster: a regional call for proposals to support local CE projects (France): Programme to support local initiatives and project to use CE principles and raise awareness.

The approval of this action plan launches the second phase of the COLOR CIRCLE project, that will be dedicated to its implementation and the animation of the local stakeholders’ network. Phase 2 will last until July 2023.