Within this context, Veltha has been involved in different European projects, such as Depbal, Zephir, SCREEN, Digiprime, REPLACE, FrontSh1p. Through its engagement in such initiatives, Veltha realized the importance of the circular economy as a systemic approach to foster sustainable use of resources and revolutionize the supply chains, early on.

Adopting the European Commission's “Manifesto for a resource-efficient Europe” and the first report from the Ellen Macarthur Foundation, “Towards a circular economy” in 2013, made the circular economy a main target of research and commitment for Veltha, to enable the transition of this new vision. 

Veltha has been researching different aspects of the circular economy since the EU's “Circular Economy Action Plan” issued in 2015, by adopting a bottom-up approach, involving local authorities and stakeholders to identify value chains with potential, while defining a monitoring framework for assessing CE projects. 

The involvement in the Horizon2020 SCREEN project allowed Veltha to collaborate with more than 25 European Regions and 900 stakeholders, thus extending the network of regional officers, policymakers, experts, and general stakeholders, that can be added to emerging industrial clusters, academia, and cross-sectoral value chains.

Our interest extended increased industry sectors, ranging from textile, construction, automotive, plastics and bio-based ones. Veltha then expanded its research scope to encompass additional facets such as material flows and innovative technologies, enabling development of new business models tailored for SMEs. These activities anticipated the recommendations of the new CE action plan published in 2020 and paved the way for Veltha to be considered a front runner in research devoted to a circular economy innovation system within Europe.

This purpose is achieved mainly by the following actions:

To select, prepare and implement research project proposals funded by the European Commission, the World Bank and other possible local, national and international Donors.

To enhance innovation by fostering technology transfers from Research to Industry, with particular emphasis on the circular economy and to environmental, socioeconomic and cultural sustainability.

To provide seminars, conferences and formal consultation in matters of research and innovation, and to participate in debates or decision-making processes that concern or involve those fields.

To carry out works and studies, conduct actions or participate in projects that contribute to a better reciprocal knowledge between European and Third Countries, with subjects engaged in circular economy and sustainable development, as well as to develop synergies and cooperative actions with them.

We will share our advanced expertise in the following research areas: policy models, circular business models, digitalisation of the circular economy and sustainable materials. Our specialization in these categories will possibly give life to new European collaboration projects for a transition at macro level towards a circular economy system.

Policy Models

Veltha’s research focus primarily dwells upon the identification of potential stumbling barriers of existing socioeconomic policy instruments at regional, national and EU level. Through an accurate and systemic monitoring of emerging limitations to circular opportunities, Veltha strives to build and expand an inter-regional ecosystem of regional officers and stakeholders interested in joining forces to bring circular economy initiatives to life, and make them real.

The management of the Policy Lab activities originated within the SCREEN project and the co-design and validation of the assessment criteria for circular economy projects, has led Veltha to gain a role of responsibility in the definition of policy recommendations in reference to business models and value chains for companies involved at the regional level, social recommendations for citizen engagement and reskilling, and environmental recommendations centered on the product life cycle approach. Veltha’s research will keep leading the direction towards the performance of a complete transition to a circular economy system in the regions, with the aim of defining action plans for regional interventions and enhancements, alongside policy and business plans for further development and replication pathways in all the EU regions.

Circular Business Models

Veltha plays an essential role in the design of a Regional Circular Economy Approach, boasting expertise in the creation of methodologies and toolkits necessary to develop a monitoring system to support the circular transition in EU regions. For the achievement of an advanced and specialised experience in the field, the fruitful partnership with Università di Viterbo (UNITUS) has been essential, as it has opened the gate for us to access and study the design of circular business models tailored to the specific needs of the business activities. Now Veltha’s expertise lies in the definition of strategies leading to the creation of new circular business models and regional enhancements while constantly monitoring and assessing impact through citizens and stakeholder engagements. Within this framework, Veltha attempts to showcase and ingrain public mentality with how circular models can act as catalysts to boost socioeconomic growth and address environmental challenges, by  identifying and designing methods to streamline sustainable processes of economic activities.

The monitoring system for such activities is generally based on a specific set of indicators aimed at assessing the circularity of industrial processes within regions, ranging from circular design, new production processes accepting secondary raw materials, waste reduction, reduction emissions, and so on. However, the implementation of a circular economy business model cannot be accomplished without an accurate and systemic analysis of the needs and expectations concerning the relevant stakeholders involved. In this scenario, Veltha leaves it's mark by drawing on the procedure co-created and validated during the SCREEN project that enables the identification of existing value-chains in regions, leading them to cross borders for mutual interaction and unlock potential new business models grounded in the circular philosophy. In this regard, Veltha is committed to performing activities that could bridge the gap between business representatives and policymakers for the resolution of hurdles and limitations, through targeted barrier removal actions that can break through the wall and facilitate mutual information exchange for future opportunities.

Digitalisation of the Circular Economy

In the past year, Veltha has put forth a concerted effort in exploring the technological scenarios for the application of a digital tool that is being designed by one of the European projects belonging to our portfolio. This project, revolutionary by its genesis, concurrently deploys all the highly advanced computing technologies, from artificial intelligence and IoT technologies to the use of big data and digital twins for product predictions and adaptations, to deliver a high performing research-based service platform that will set the ground for far-reaching breakthroughs in our economic paradigm.

The involvement of our organisation in such an ambitious initiative and the arising mutual synergies between the different projects we have participated in, has paved the way for our growing expertise in digital technologies for a circular economy. In fact, Veltha is currently playing a leading role in the development of new software applications and services aimed at identifying, through data collection, analysis and interoperability of platform users, cross-sectoral and cross-regional value chains for the creation of new business cases in Europe. In this scenario, Veltha draws on their network of regional authorities to implement the SCREEN mapping tool and connect with stakeholders for the identified value chains to be turned into circular business opportunities. In this regard, Veltha’s expertise is also sought to design software modules for material flow monitoring, providing an aggregated view on the circulating components and materials across the nodes of the platform. A leading role is also executed to identify potential barriers, through an accurate monitoring of potential emerging limitations to cross-sectoral business interactions, that could be removed through specific legislation designed by policymakers at all levels, to support circular economy practices based on real data observation. Drawing on our expanding ecosystem of stakeholders, Veltha is also responsible for the Open Call management and promotion targeted at potential end-users of the platform in a given sector and potential new platform owners, with the aim of designing new developments and identifying new business areas to be covered.

Building on this previous experience, Veltha’s team is now also involved in the development of digital tools and methodology enhancements for the assessment of the circular economy approach within specific regional contexts, based on life cycle assessment methodologies, innovation, and cooperation strategies.

Sustainable materials

Veltha’s research scope does not want to be confined to the areas in which Veltha has gained a leading position over the past ten years and is ready to strive on its expertise to ambitiously expand its research objectives, thus embracing new areas in need of sustainable development.

After an accurate analysis of the state-of-the-art of implantable actuating devices suffering time-limited operational capacities due to exhaustible batteries, Veltha will be involved in a new project focused on the design of new high performance sustainable materials that could replace the limited ones in the creation of soft actuating devices, by using metabolic biochemical energy to function, imitating the properties of biological tissues and thus eliminating the need for external power sources. The proposed research has the objective to spark a revolution in the field of biomedical engineering and medicine which will have an impact on other scientific, industrial and socioeconomic fields. Veltha is ready to be in the frontline to dismantle the industrial implications around the concept of “revolution” to charge it with a new meaning that makes it circular and sustainable.