Circular Enterprise Programme 2024

An opportunity for young and aspiring innovators to collaborate and design circular solutions for the region's most pressing waste challenges.

Since 2021, Circular Cities Asia has partnered with universities to offer applied learning opportunities for students and alumni, focused on the intersection between circularity and innovation.

Through the Circular Enterprise Programme we’re building an innovation movement to redesign linear economic models and encourage young innovators to develop sustainable, circular solutions that address waste issues in their communities and help accelerate the transition to a circular economy.

As part of the programme we provide participants with resources and support as they embark on their circular innovation journey. After working through the circular innovation toolkit and completing the learning sessions, participants will take part in a pitch event hosted by their university. The top teams from the pitch events will submit their circular solutions for the final shortlist. Shortlisted teams will take part in an incubation that includes seed funding to help them develop their circular solutions further.

PROGRAMME GUIDELINE BROCHURE

Innovation Challenge

How can we use circular economy innovation to increase the health and enjoyment of public spaces?

Participants will be tasked with developing innovative solutions within the framework of a circular economy to:

Reduce waste and pollution in public spaces
Improve management systems for solid waste, water, air quality, climate adaptation, etc.
Promote stewardship of public spaces at the community level

Solutions should consider local contexts, infrastructure limitations, and the involvement of various stakeholders such as governments, businesses, academia, and civil society.

Ideas might include solutions for solid waste, water issues, air quality issues, or other waste challenges that impede the health of green spaces, waterways or oceanside areas.

Why Public Spaces?

“Managing public space is a big and important blind spot of urban and regional planning and design. Important, because major transition challenges, such as climate adaptation, energy transition, circular economy, mobility, and governance require substantial changes in public space – both physical and social changes” (Duivenvoorden et al., 2021).

Public space plays an important role in the quality of life and functioning of cities and communities, yet we are seeing the health of these spaces decline from waste and pollution-related problems. For both humans and other species, this poses challenges for the quality of their experience in public spaces.

To help address these problems, engaging citizens is essential as they are among the key stakeholders involved. We believe that initiatives should not only be innovative, but also collaborative from the start. Stakeholder engagement that reflects the diversity of a community is a key component for developing successful long-term solutions that meet the needs of the community at large.

Congratulations to the winning teams of the innovation competition!

These were the top 3 teams chosen for the incubation opportunity with 2500 NZD of seed funding:

AgriKasanag
USTP, Philippines

UPD-University-of-the-Philippines-Diliman-1-1024x729-3879534133.png

Greencircle
UP-D, Philippines

Dam-Verse
JKLU, India

Timeline

May 27

DEADLINE FOR TEAM REGISTRATION

To enter the innovation competition, student teams must complete the team registration form by this date (TBC).

April 14

PROGRAMME PRE-REGISTRATION CLOSES

Students and recent alumni of the participating universities (aged 18+) must submit the programme registration form by this date.

Mid April - End May

PROGRAMME PARTICIPATION & PITCH PREPARATION

Participants work through the circular innovation toolkit, attend the programme sessions, and prepare their pitches for the innovation competition.

Early July

FINAL SHORTLIST

The CCA team will review the pitches of the top student teams and select who will go on to the incubation.

February - Mid April

PROGRAMME PRE-REGISTRATION

Participating universities promote the programme on campus to students and alumni.

June

PITCH EVENTS AT EACH PARTICIPATING UNIVERSITY

Each university will organise and host a pitch event. Local stakeholders will be invited to provide feedback on the circular solutions pitched by the student teams.

July 7

TOP TEAMS FROM EACH UNIVERSITY SUBMIT PITCHES

The top student teams chosen from each university's pitch event submit their pitches to Circular Cities Asia (CCA) for the final shortlist.

July - October

INCUBATION FOR SELECT TEAMS

The chosen teams will take part in a 3-month incubation and receive seed funding to support the development of their circular solutions.

Participating Institutions

Universitas Diponegoro, Indonesia

University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines

University of the Philippines - Diliman

Bataan Peninsula State University

Vietnamese-German University, Vietnam

JK Lakshmipat University, India

Amity University Punjab - Mohali

JPIS (in affiliation with JKLU & Amity)

The programme registration is now closed.

Thank you to all of the students and recent alumni from these schools who registered!

Circular Innovation Journey

Make sure to pre-register to gain access to a circular innovation toolkit and resource support to help you prepare your pitch for the innovation competition.

Here is the circular innovation journey we’ll guide participants through:

Problem Discovery

In this stage you’ll identify waste/pollution problems within your local context and conduct research to better understand the key stakeholders, processes and waste involved, gather meaningful data from potential customers/users about their pain points, and then interpret your findings to figure out if it’s a problem worth solving.

Ideating Solutions

In this stage you’ll focus on the ‘what if’ or ‘what could be the future’. You’ll come up with potential solutions using an ideation process that includes getting inspired by circular design strategies, conceptualising circular ideas and deciding which idea can help address the specific waste/pollution problem your team identified. Your team will put together a pitch presentation to consolidate your circular innovation journey up to this point.

Solution Development

In this stage you’ll focus on making the business case for your circular solution to be implemented and test its feasibility. You’ll look into financial models that could sustain your project. Your team will also conduct research and prototyping to further the development of your circular solution.
*Incubation teams will receive support on this phase.

Incentives

Select teams will be invited to take part in an incubation opportunity, which includes mentoring and coaching for prototyping their proposed circular solution and developing as an enterprise.

Each incubation team will also receive seed funding to support this research and development of their circular idea.

Learning Sessions

Intro to Circular Economy Innovation & Programme Theme

April 16, 2024 from 5:00-6:15pm PHT (GMT +8)

An introductory session to build foundational knowledge on the concept of a circular economy, the key role of innovation and how this links to the programme theme: public spaces. Participants will also hear from Teddy Asril, who will share his experience working on a project focused on the intersection between circular economy innovation and public spaces.

Problem Phase

April 23, 2024 from 5:00-6:00pm PHT (GMT +8)

This session will focus on problem research and validation. Participants will receive practical advice for conducting their problem research and will learn about case studies of what it could look like in practice.

Ideation Phase

May 6, 2024 from 5:00-6:00pm PHT (GMT +8)

An open session for participants to ask questions and get feedback on their circular innovation journeys up to that point. Circular design strategies and case studies of existing circular solutions and businesses will be shared for inspiration.