The Ecoinnovation and Ecodesign for the Circular Economy Programme of the Basque Government's Ministry of the Environment is one of the cornerstones of its recently approved Circular Economy Strategy 2030. This programme is implemented by means of an annual grant call for innovative business projects. The 36 projects awarded grants in the 2019 call are initiatives in the field of ecodesign, business models, remanufacturing, metals, plastics and minerals. They will receive a total of €1.67 million from the Basque Government. Work started on the initiatives in January this year and the implementation period is between 12 and 18 months.

The second challenge of the recently approved "Basque Circular Economy Strategy 2030" consists of innovating in materials, processes and products. Innovation allows the challenges established in European policy instruments to be converted into business opportunities. Those instruments include the Ecodesign Directive, green public procurement, the Industrial Emissions Directive (IPPC) or the different waste legislation.

The newly initiated 36 innovative projects in the circular economy, along with the 118 in previous calls, have totalled €4.05 million in grants from the Basque Ministry of the Environment, Territorial Planning and Housing, awarded through Ihobe to 57 companies during the current parliament term (2016-19). These grants are backed by the European Regional Development Fund - ERDF.

Sixty four percent of the 36 projects in the latest call are geared towards materials and the remainder towards products, the vast majority of which coincide with the priority themes established in the Circular Economy Strategy. The "product" area includes 6 ecodesign projects, 3 in servitization for durability, 4 in remanufacturing and 2 projects regarding the European environmental footprint. The "materials" area has 5 projects in the field of metal transformation technologies, 6 in key metals and critical materials, 4 in polymers and plastics, 4 in minerals and 3 projects in the bioeconomy.

As a new feature of the 2019 call, Ihobe has organised training sessions and expert advice for the companies on circular business models and access to private funding, in order to focus the projects right from the start to the marketing of the development solutions.