The Science and Technology Park of Montenegro has started the implementation of the EU Interreg Danube project Circular Innovation Hub (CI-Hub). The main goal of the project is to enhance innovative capacities in less developed regions by leveraging the advantages of the circular economy. The project focuses on the less developed regions of the Western Balkans, which are characterized by lower research and development funding, fewer patents filed, and lower levels of ICT technology usage in business operations. The project relies on the user experience transfer model within supply chains in the context of Industry 4.0. Through planned activities, the aim is to create new value based on the principles of circular economy (reduce, reuse, and recycle resources), with a focus on two sectors: plastic and metal processing, and construction.

The specific goal of the project is to develop a set of instruments to support companies in the process of implementing the principles of the circular economy. The project activities also involve the development of new tools to promote circular economy in less developed regions, as well as the transfer of knowledge from developed to less developed regions of the Danube region in the field of circular economy. This presents an opportunity for domestic companies to integrate the principles of circular and green economy into their operations. In the circular economy, products are designed to optimize their use and life cycle, promote reuse, improve the collection process, and invest in infrastructure for developing the recycled materials market, which are then reused to create optimized products. The project also plans to create an acceleration program in this area at a transnational level, which will be the first program of its kind developed in the EU. The project envisions the establishment of a training center that will focus on transferring knowledge from innovative regions in Germany and Austria to other less developed regions of the Danube region.

The project involves 13 partners from 11 countries in the Danube macro-region:

• Technological Park Pomurje (Slovenia)
• IFKA, Budapest (Hungary)
• Business development agency of the Karlovy Vary Region (Czech Republic)
• Technical University of Cluj Napoca (Romania)
• BRCCI.EU / ICT Cluster (Bulgaria)
• Science and technology park Čačak (Serbia)
• DIH Onex, Banja Luka (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
• bwcon (Germany)
• Technical University of Košice (Slovakia)
• University of Applied Sciences Carinthia (Austria)
• HGK County Chamber of Varaždin (Croatia)
• Organization for Entrepreneurship Development (Moldova)
• Science and technology park of Montenegro (Montenegro)

Project duration: 01.01.2024 – 30.06.2026.

Project budget: 2,351,006.74 EUR

Interreg funding: 1,880,805.39 EUR

You can read more details about the project at official project website.         zvaničnoj veb stranici projekta.