Led by the coordinator of the Post-Growth Innovation Lab at the University of Vigo, Mario Pansera, and coordinated by the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona (UAB), the European Just2ce project aimed to analyse which factors could promote or hinder the transition to a socially just circular economy. The project, which was funded with over 3.6 million euros from the EU's Horizon 2020 programme and involved 14 universities, research centres and non-governmental organisations from nine countries in Europe and Africa, was selected by the European Commission as a success story.
The project, which was completed at the end of 2024, has been included in the "Success Stories" section of the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation's website in recent weeks. It is the “third H2020 project involving UVigo to be included in this list. "This is an important recognition for us," says Pansera, who emphasises how important it is that a project that "focuses on a just transition to the circular economy influences the discourse" on this topic "within the European Union". At the same time, the head of the Post-Growth Innovation Lab emphasises the positive aspect of this choice when it comes to positioning this research group as a "reference" in the field of the circular economy at European level.
A ‘different discourse’ on the circular economy
In this sense, Pansera recalls that Just2ce, which was developed between 2020 and 2024, sought to "lay the foundations for a different discourse", so that one of its main outcomes, as he says, was a theoretical framework that "begins to talk about labour, gender and environmental justice" when analysing the circular economy paradigm. At the same time, this European project has also produced an "open tool for the analysis of global value chains" that allows citizens to "analyse resources and economic activities". This is the Supply Chain Explorer, which makes it possible to obtain information on the production of consumer goods and the origin of raw materials, combining macroeconomic data with other data on gender issues, working conditions, social justice or environmental conflicts. He emphasises that this project has also contributed to the development of ‘dynamic macroeconomic models that are not based on a general equilibrium’.
Another outcome of the project was a set of recommendations for the development of transformative policies in this area, which are summarised in the e-book Circular Economy for Social Transformation: Multiple Paths to Achieve Circularity. A documentary film was also produced showcasing some of the analysed case studies in Europe and Africa. The research conducted as part of Just2ce led to 26 publications in scientific journals.
In addition to UVigo and the UAB, the universities of Sheffield, Federico II of Naples, Leeds, Coimbra, Cape Town and the Mekelle University of Etopia, the Waste Agency of Catalonia, the Scientific and Industrial Research and Development Centre of Zimbabwe and the organisations Kumasi Hive and African Circular Economy Network were involved in the project.