Circular economy for SMEs – innovating with the NICER programme

Fund Details

Your proposal must demonstrate how you will create a step-change in the adoption of circular economy approaches. The broad spectrum of circular economy approaches will be in scope, for example:

• repair
• reuse
• remanufacture
• recycle
• regeneration

Projects are particularly encouraged that focus on retaining the maximum amount of value in a product or system.

Your project must align with at least one of the resource flows covered by the Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Centres:

• chemicals (specifically Olefins)
• textiles
• metals
• technology metals
• mineral-based construction materials

Your project can focus on one or more of the following examples:

• piloting the introduction of a circular economy business model
• development or improvement of products and processes to enable remanufacturing, repair and retention of value
• increasing understanding and exploitation of material flow data in a defined place (for example; city, Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEP), cluster, region)
• scaling-up of credible circular economy feasibility studies
• evaluating whether proposed circular economy approaches are more sustainable when considering broader life cycle thinking

Eligibility

Your project must:

• have total eligible costs between £50,000 and £100,000
• start no earlier than 1 April 2022
• end by 31 March 2023
• last between 9 and 12 months
• carry out all of its project work in the UK
• intend to exploit the results from or in the UK

To lead a project or work alone your organisation must be a UK registered micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME) business. Academic institutions cannot lead or work alone.

Talk to us today if you would like to apply for this opportunity.