ACE Reporting from the ECESP Annual Conference
By the ACE Team
Academic research doesn't always make it into the rooms where policy gets written. That's the gap Academics for Circular Economy (ACE) is trying to close — and the Annual Conference of the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform (ECESP) is one of the best places to do it. Five ACE members attended this year's conference to bring science into the conversation with regulators, businesses, and practitioners shaping Europe's circular future. Here's what they found, and what ACE is doing with it.
The Big Themes on the Table
A Single Market for the Circular Economy
Former Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta set the tone by linking his broader push to deepen the EU Single Market — in energy, connectivity, and finance — to the circular economy. His argument: cross-border trade in materials and the ability to scale circular business models across member states are being held back by the same fragmentation that limits the Single Market elsewhere.
This framing matters. It signals a shift in how the circular economy is being sold to policymakers — less as an environmental nice-to-have, more as a competitiveness play. At a moment when sustainability isn't dominating the political agenda, positioning circularity as an economic advantage may be what keeps it moving forward.
The Circular Economy Act Is Coming
Expected in Fall 2026, the EU's Circular Economy Act is set to focus heavily on secondary raw materials, while the higher-impact "R-strategies” such as reduce, reuse, and redesign will remain under the existing Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR). Conference discussions kept circling back to a tension in that division of labor: recycling quotas alone won't get Europe where it needs to go. Upstream innovation and smoother cross-border trade of waste and recycled materials have to move in parallel, not as an afterthought.
The Bioeconomy Strategy
The EU's Bioeconomy Strategy is aimed at scaling bio-based innovation from the lab to the real world, guided by a 2040 vision. Circularity sits at the center of it: bio-based materials need to be designed for durability, value retention, and efficient reuse across their entire lifecycle — not just at the point of disposal.
Reporting from the Leadership Groups
ACE's role at ECESP wasn't just to observe. We represented a youth voice in the room and participated across every Leadership Group (LG) session on the agenda. A few highlights from those sessions:
LG1 — Transitioning to circular value chains. Led by ACE and designed as a knowledge-sharing and knowledge-building session, LG1 took on the topic of Circular Transition Brokers — a key actor and an emerging profession in circular transitions. Participants shared their ideas about the roles and competencies of Circular Transition Brokers before a panel of experts from the European Environment Agency, Sitra, and Circul’R shared their experience with managing circular transitions. Building on the results from this session, ACE will continue to work on institutionalizing Circular Transition Brokers.
LG2 — Advancing an integrated circular bioeconomy. This LG is working on inclusive, fair value chains that align with the Bioeconomy Strategy's 2040 vision which is to strengthen rural economies, improve biomass use, and promote regenerative systems that return nutrients and materials to the environment. But the clearest message from the session wasn't about writing more legislation. It was about action: the knowledge on how to build bioeconomy strategy already exists, from human capital to bottom-up networks. What's missing is shared knowledge and real collaboration between institutions.
LG3 — Enabling an inclusive circular society. This group put social inclusion and community wellbeing at the center of the circular transition, arguing that circularity has to deliver quality jobs and a just transition alongside its environmental gains. Several examples made the case concretely:
Reuse Federace showed how repair, reuse, and refurbishment can cut waste while creating inclusive jobs, proving social enterprises can deliver environmental and social value at once.
The City of Hasselt demonstrated community-based approaches that build social cohesion while advancing circularity.
The Rediscovery Centre shared methods for engaging citizens through trusted local intermediaries and hands-on learning.
The throughline across all three: circular initiatives only work if they're affordable, attractive, and achievable for the people actually living them — which means education and local infrastructure matter as much as policy design.
LG4 — Economic and financing instruments for the circular transition. This session tackled the persistent gap between EU strategy on paper and actual investment on the ground. Circular business models still struggle to scale because taxation, regulation, and financial risk models are built for a linear economy. Three themes emerged:
Economic and market design — current tools like Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) often send weak price signals, and tax systems still underprice pollution and resource use. Research can help identify where these instruments fail and how to redesign them.
Financing and capital mobilisation — banks and investors often lack the data and confidence to evaluate circular business models, especially when returns are delayed. Research can help translate circular value into financial terms investors already understand: risk, return, resilience, cash flow.
Framework conditions — credible data, consistent indicators, and reliable reporting standards are still missing pieces. Academic research can help test definitions and connect environmental, social, and economic evidence to make circular solutions genuinely bankable.
LG5 — Increasing demand for European circular solutions. Public procurement accounts for roughly 14% of EU GDP, which makes it one of the most powerful tools available for scaling circularity. The session highlighted several concrete examples already in motion:
Circular Flanders is turning the OVAM regulatory framework into practice through EPR and total-cost-of-ownership procurement, supported by a dedicated Circular Procurement Learning Network.
3D-Circular.eu is training the next generation directly, aiming for 1,600 master's students through free doctoral and master's programmes within three years.
The Circular Economy Coalition built a Global Ecosystem Model to support public procurers.
Dublin City Council rolled out a Green Public Procurement Scheme that prioritizes demand avoidance and requires justification whenever a non-green option is chosen.
What Comes Next
Looking at the bigger picture, ACE walked away from the ECESP Annual Conference with three takeaways:
Build the academic case. The themes from ECESP need a strong home in academic discussion — continuing at the 7th Symposium on Circular Economy and Sustainability in Maastricht and expanding into online side events as part of ACE's upcoming Road-to-COP series.
Go global. The youth consultation and ECESP Leadership Group themes can reach a global audience through WCEF side-events and Road-to-COP publications — reframing the circular economy not just as an industry or competitiveness story, but as a genuine pathway to net-zero and climate resilience.
Make it just. ACE's work heading into WCEF 2026 and COP30 will center on a single guiding idea: not just transition, but a just transition.
Stay tuned!
