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How to join the CircLean Network

Who can join?

There are four different categories of members within the Network:

  1. Industry actors, including industrial symbiosis networks/clusters, individual businesses, SMEs and utility companies (private or public)
  2. Business associations that represent the interest of industrial actors, companies, SMEs
  3. Public authorities, including regional and city governments
  4. R&I organisations (Universities, scientific foundations, research institutions, scientists, consultancies etc.).

How to join?

You can become a member of the CircLean Network in three steps:

1. Expression of interest

The applicant contacts the CircLean Secretariat to express their interest in participating in the CircLean Network.

2. Fill in and submit the application form

Category A: The CircLean Secretariat assesses the relevance of the company to industrial symbiosis activities, and its readiness to apply the methodology and the tool (e.g. examining also its demonstrated involvement in industrial symbiosis projects, ongoing or under development).

Category B & C: The CircLean Secretariat assesses the relevance of industrial symbiosis in the business association’s/public authority’s objectives/policy agenda and of demonstrated support (or planned support) of industrial symbiosis activities.

Category D: The CircLean Secretariat assesses the relevance of the involvement of the R&I organisation in relevant R&D, or demonstration projects.

To complete the assessment, the Secretariat may contact the applicants with requests for clarifications.

3. Decision

At the end of the assessment, the Secretariat informs each applicant that its request for membership is either approved or rejected with motivations.

For approved applications, the CircLean Secretariat requests the applicant to sign the CircLean network Charter, and to provide information on the company (e.g. description of the organisation, mission, priorities, link to website) to be displayed on the CircLean website.

Applications can be received at any time during the project period. More information on the duration of the membership and eligibility can be found in the CircLean Network Charter.

All data shared by the members with the Secretariat will be treated in compliance with the provisions of the EU General Data Protection Regulation[1].

Types of members of the CircLean network

Approved applicants can select the envisaged level of engagement and choose between “basic” or “active” membership. The choice of the level of engagement will be theirs and made by each individual stakeholder when joining the network. Please find more information on the type of members in the assessment of potential members.

Roles and commitments of members

Considering the diverse types of members and consequently their diverse interests in being involved in the CircLean Network’s activities, a set of roles and commitments are defined for each category of members. A detailed list of roles and commitments can be found here.


[1] Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC.