Cross-regional value-chains

In this page you can download an Excel version of the DigiPrime Mapping tool, fill-in it offline, and then send it back.

This way, you do not need to upload again data in the incoming Pilot 5 web tool; when you send back the excel file, data will be uploaded into the web tool database, ready for the automated mechanisms able to send you notifications on potential circular value chains and synergies

When the web tool will be online, you will be notified with an invitation to join the platform and check (and eventually update) your mapping tool; then, you will have access to the notifications generated by the service.

The specific service of the DigiPrime Pilot 5 “Cross-regional value chains’ identification” has the scope to identify cross-sectorial and cross-regional circular economy value-chains, based on the methodology developed within the SCREEN project , where 17 European regions co-created a replicable systemic approach towards a transition to Circular Economy within the context of the Smart Specialization Strategy. The original methodologies and tools, further validated by a group of different international stakeholders, were conceived as a powerful instrument for supporting regional officers in charge to foster the transition towards a circular economy to have an overview of the existing and potential value chains, as well as to be notified about possible cross regional or cross sectorial synergies and value chains.

While the original procedure was specifically conceived to be used by regional officers only, the open innovation approach adopted in DigiPrime for the translation enables local stakeholders – companies, universities, and research centres, to directly insert their data and to be directly notified about circular business opportunities. A further advantage of the automated identification mechanism consists in avoiding the support of a circular economy expert for the first identification of value chains and synergies matching, thus leaving the regional officer more freedom. The software tool has the same structure and scope of the already existing (manually operated) one: help the regional officers in charge to foster the transition towards a circular economy to have an overview of the existing and potential value chains, as well as to be notified about possible cross regional or cross sectorial synergies and value chains.

While the original procedure was specifically conceived to be used by regional officers only, the open innovation approach adopted for the translation enables local stakeholders – companies, universities, and research centers, to directly insert their data in only a part of the mapping tool as shown in the figure, and to be directly notified about circular business opportunities. In fact, the automated procedure of this service replaces the human-driven steps of the original methodology (with the exception of step1, which is the filling in of the mapping tool), and analyzes the mapping tool data and provides notifications not only to regional officers, but also to single stakeholders, allowing them to have direct contacts in case of matches detected by the system, according to the automated mechanisms described in the following.

The 4 automated mechanisms elaborate the data of a “regional mapping tool” composed by 12 data sheets conceived to be filled in by regional officers to define the circular economy framework in their regions; the novelty of the approach consist in allowing local stakeholders to fill in the part of the mapping tool describing their capabilities.

• Mechanism 1 operates a first identification of existing and potential regional and cross regional value chains in the same sector;
• Mechanism 2 search for matches among upstream/downstream materials between different companies and may also advice regional officers of potential exceeding of wasted materials;
• Mechanism 3 search for matches between companies’ emerging ideas and other companies’ capabilities;
• mechanism 4 search for matches among “Hotspots” (Flow or process in the value chain that has a high negative impact) declared by regional officers and emerging ideas and capabilities of the local stakeholders.

The added value of the automated identification mechanism consists in avoiding the support of a circular economy expert for the first identification of value chains and synergies matching, thus leaving more freedom for a prelimianry analysis of the notifications received; the lower accuracy of the automated mechanisms will be compensated by the large number of data that will be available once the DigiPrime platform will be fully operating.

Once received notifications, the most promising ones can be further investigated through another DigiPrime service “3.8 Circular Innovation Hubs Integration a.

Regional officers are requested to fill in all the data sheets of the mapping tool, while only same specific sheets should be completed by local stakeholders (see the figure); however, the header of each sheet advise about the subject expected to fill it in.

• Download the excel sheet with the mapping tool
• Have a look at it before start inserting data, to become confident with it
• Need assistance? Write an email to this address for simple questions or to arrange a call for more extensive explanations; Starting from november 2021, there will be a webinar each month; list and dates will be published here soon
• Do not worry if you are not able to fill in all your data sheets: once the web tool is online, updating it is very easy
• Send the mapping tool with your data to this address , get a receipt and wait for the announcement of the web tool activation
• Do not worry if you are not able to fill in all your data sheets: once the web tool is online, updating it will be easy
• By sending back the mapping tool, you will receive invitations to the specific monthly webinars explaining how to use the service