CATALYST

When moving towards a more green and circular economy, industrial stakeholders may lack awareness of the potential benefits from collaboration, resource sharing, and waste exchange within industrial ecosystems. Hence, the CATALYST (Circularity and Industrial Symbiosis in Industrial Parks as Green Transition Tool) project will provide information on symbiotic opportunities, case studies, and best practices for identified stakeholders to accelerate the transition to a circular economy.

The project team is led by the National Center for Sustainable Production and Consumption (CNPCD) with partners from NIVA, Politehnica University of Timisoara (UPT) and Thamsklyngen.

CATALYST aims to improve resource efficiency within industrial parks, promoting knowledge of the circular economy and industrial symbiosis through utilization of best practices, and increasing collaboration and synergies among stakeholders within industrial ecosystems. This will be accomplished through education initiatives to raise awareness among industrial stakeholders about the concept, benefits, and potential applications of industrial symbiosis in order to build capacity among industrial stakeholders.

Industrial symbiosis (IS) can be defined as the use by one company or sector of underutilised resources broadly defined (including waste, by-products, residues, energy, water, logistics, capacity, expertise, equipment and materials) from another, with the result of keeping resources in productive use for longer. (Definition from CEN Workshop Agreement 17354)

CATALYST contributes to the green and circular transition through stakeholder engagement, capacity building, technological innovation, and bilateral cooperation. Outcomes of the project include increased collaboration through the building of stronger partnerships and networks, and technical support to assess the feasibility of symbiotic opportunities associated with resource sharing and waste exchange. Stakeholder mapping and categorization will take place in order to survey actual challenges and opportunities in addition to organizing webinars to raise awareness.

An online Resource Knowledge Hub for facilitators and companies will be established with free access to training materials and resources on circularity of resources and industrial symbiosis. A selected industrial park in Romania will be assessed to accelerate circular economy practices and valorization of waste by promoting waste water management combined with resource recovery.

Bilateral study tours between Romania and Norway will strengthen project cooperation and its efforts towards a more green and circular transition in industries. 

The project is a spinoff of the LIAISE COST Action, a network on cooperation, development and cross-border transfer of industrial symbiosis.

All products from the project (e.g., trainings materials, reports, etc.) will be made available and shared with relevant stakeholders to inform policy-making and encourage the adoption of industrial symbiosis practices at the national and local levels to support an environment for symbiotic collaborations.

Objectives:

1. Enhance bilateral cooperation between Norwegian and Romanian actors.
2. Raise awareness and promote the benefits of resource efficiency, circular economy, and industrial symbiosis among Romanian and Norwegian industry.
3. Build capacity for facilitators of industrial symbiosis within companies and industrial parks through knowledge transfer.
4. Accelerate transition to a circular economy by identifying opportunities for resource efficiency and industrial symbiosis.
5. Exchange knowledge through bilateral relations between Romanian and Norwegian industrial stakeholders.
6. Create synergies to enhance collaboration and industrial symbiosis.