The Provincial Council of Granada introduces the circular economy in the territorial strategic planning

This is a key perspective to guarantee sustainability and viability of development projects in the province.

Next July, the European project “COLOR CIRCLE”, promoted by the Granada Provincial Council, will be finalized, after a period of 4 years, working to introduce the circular economy perspective in the urban agendas, at the municipal, supra-municipal and provincial level.

“We have managed to consider the circular economy perspective in the strategic planning of our urban agendas, where development projects of Granada are detailed. It is a key question to guarantee sustainability and viability of such projects”, said the acting Deputy of Employment and Sustainable Development.

One of the keys of such success is the contact of the University and territories, thanks to the training programme “Puentes” (“Bridges”) and the initiative “Impronta Granada” (Granada Mark)

“Puentes” is currently running its third edition, which began in April and will last until September. Its objective is to favour the social and labour insertion of university students under 30, through specialised training and extracurricular practices in local sustainable development projects for municipalities, most of them at risk of depopulation. Young talent and territory are linked by this way. Thanks to the synergies with the project COLOR CIRCLE, the training includes a specific module about circular economy. “Therefore, we have managed that circular economy perspective becomes an essential question of the projects that are linked to the urban agendas and developed by students”, asserts Muñoz.

On the other hand, the initiative “Impronta Granada”, was created as an alliance between the University and the Provincial Council of Granada to deal with territorial challenges with the support of scientific knowledge. It makes progress with great success, given that “Impronta Granada” has become a national pilot project to link the University with the implementation of Urban Agendas, with the support of the Ministry of Transports, Mobility and Urban Agenda. Besides, it has received a grant to implement a project about citizen science, in the framework of the call 2022 of the National Plan for Scientific, Technical and Innovation Research. The platform web of Impronta has recently reached its second phase of development, connecting the urban agendas of the Provincial Council with the research ecosystem of the University: “Granada Investiga” “(Granada Researches”). It will make easier the transfer of knowledge to the public sector, creating a creative and productive dialogue between territory and academia.

COLOR CIRCLE began its path in August 2019. It has been implemented thanks to the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), in the framework of the programme Interreg Europe, that promotes a learning to improve public policies through a transnational exchange of knowledge. The objective of the COLOR CIRCLE has been to foster the role that local entities can play in the progress towards circular economy, connecting them with the University world and other research centres. For that, the County Council of Granada has collaborated during 4 years with the University of HESAM – Paris (leader organization), the Burgundy-Franche-Comté Regional Council (France), the Central Bohemian Innovation Centre (Czech Republic), Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences (Netherlands) and the Regional Development Agency Centru (Romania).