Circular economy opens new business opportunities, gives rise to new business models and develops new markets, domestically and outside the EU.

Increased efforts are going to be needed in this field to implement the revised waste legislation and develop markets for secondary raw materials

Also, the work on certain issues, which was already started at EU level, needs to be accelerated if the EU wants to reap all the benefits of transition from linear to circular economy.

The EU's ambitious environmental policy and its financial support from the European Commission (EC), particularly in the last decade, have helped stakeholders to recognise and realise not only the ecological, but also the economic and social benefits of the circular economy.

FIS NODE for Transition from the Linear to the Circular Economy is going to address challenges through the following activities.

1. Firstly, we are going to explicitly focus on the impact of ambitious EU environmental policy and its financial support from the EC which helped social actors recognise not only the ecological but also the economic and social benefits of the circular economy.
2. Secondly, we are going to focus on the impact of contemporary social trends. Social actors in the process of transition have been increasingly trying to keep up with environmental legislation and policies of the EU.
3. Thirdly, we are going to focus on the impact of socio-cultural factors on social actors in the process of transition from linear to circular economy.
4. Fourthly, we are going to recognise the characteristics of vital social actors through legality of network analysis.
5. Fifthly, we are going to design a user-friendly and simple ICT node with the less-is-more user experience in mind and use it to entice the interests of potential circular economy organisations.

The FIS NODE ICT TOOL is going to provide all targeted groups, such as industry and non-industry sectors, policy makers, HEIs, civil society and others, with:

1. an up-to date review of ambitious EU environmental policy and EC financial instruments which help targeted groups recognise and take advantage of not only the ecological but also the economic and social benefits of circular economy;
2. innovative knowledge and technology;
3. demonstration of best practices between social actors in the field of circular economy at EU level.