ISBE has released its latest report: “Future of Innovation Thought Leadership Project: Innovation for a Circular Economy” which focuses on innovation for a circular economy system in the UK which might be redefined within the SME innovation ecosystem. The study was commissioned by Innovate UK and ultimately prepared by the Innovation Caucus.
This new report considers ways in which the concept of Circular Economy (CE) might be redefined within the innovation ecosystem. The findings of this report suggest that a distinction needs to be made between the innovation activities of circular economy SMEs as opposed to SMEs undertaking CE innovation and that a CE programme for SMEs should be a focus of innovation policy. Through a literature review, this publication gives a less reductive definition of the CE including aspects of sustainability and innovation rather than sticking the often-reductive parallelism with simply “recycling”. This report aims to provide insights into how policy can support a CE paradigm shift that can fundamentally change the social and business mindsets around sustainability and CE implementation. The CEIC project can be conceptualised as a novel, large-scale innovation system intervention that illustrates the principle of CE centrality to changing society’s approach to legislation, production and consumption of goods and services.
In this study, the transferability of learning from CEIC (a public sector-focused intervention) is considered as an intervention for SMEs to realise improved innovation collaborations and implications for CE growth.
To read the full report click here.
Source: Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship
