The partner meeting of CE0100312 Interreg CENTRAL EUROPE project “NiCE: From Niche to Centre – City centres as Places of Circular Lifestyles” (NiCE) was held in Ptuj, the oldest town in Slovenia, from 8 to 9 October 2024.

The NiCE project focuses on two main challenges – a transformation of central places in cities that make it easy for their inhabitants to implement sustainable lifestyles and at the same time to (re)animate centres in a more circular way.

9 partners from 8 different countries participate in the NiCE project: The German Environmental Agency (DE) took on the role of consortium-leader; ENVIROS, an environmental protection related consulting company (CZ); StadtLABOR, a lab for sustainable innovation (AT); Scientific Research Centre Bistra Ptuj, a research and development centre (SI); Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (IT); Research and Innovation Centre Pro- Akademia (PL); Budapest University of Technology and Economics (HU); Creative Industry Košice, n.o., a creative agency (SK) and the Municipality of Brzeg Dolny (PL).

The main task of the BME Department of Environmental Economics and Sustainability in the project is to provide the scientific and professional background, to lead the first, circular economy-centred workpackage (Workpackage 1), furthermore, to support the preparation of pilot actions, to monitor their implementation, and to develop an indicator-based framework related to performance evaluation.

The project took off in May 2023.

The project, which started a year and a half ago, presents several results for the enhancement of circular lifestyles in cities. After intensive local, regional and national level assessments in the first year, the second year focuses on pilot actions implemented by eight partners. The BME Department of Environmental Economics and Sustainability forms a tandem with the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development to test the “Activation of users for circular lifestyles” approach.

On the first day of the partner meeting, a workshop related to the first work package took place, which was attended not only by partners but also by invited stakeholders. After Dr. Mariann Szabó’s lead presentation of the work package, the partners reported on their Status quo reports of all pilot cities in tandem pairs, followed by an interactive brainstorming session on how governance, businesses, NGOs and active individuals help to implement a circular lifestyle in urban centres. During the brainstorming session, participants were organized into three groups and spent 5-5 minutes at thematic blocks led by our colleagues: Dr. Attila Buzási (local government), Dr. Ádám Csuvár (businesses), Dr. Mariann Szabó (NGOs, active individuals).

During the afternoon, our colleagues took part in a short study tour, looking at innovative urban solutions related to the stimulation of circular consumption. The second day reviewed the schedule of tasks due until the end of the project.