Multiplex8+, de MultiplexDX

HUB OF CIRCULAR CITIES BOOSTING PLATFORM TO FOSTER INVESTMENTS FOR THE VALORISATION OF URBAN BIOWASTE AND WASTEWATER

HOOP is a 48-month collaborative project, coordinated by Centro Tecnológico de Energía y Medio Ambiente de la Región de Murcia ( CETENMA ), that will help to unlock bio-based investments and deploy local bio economies in Europe through a systemic and cross-cutting approach. It will offer Project Development Assistance (PDA) to 8 lighthouse cities and city clusters to build the technical, economic, financial and legal expertise needed to develop concrete investments to valorise OFMSW (Organic Fraction of Municipal Solid Waste) or UWWS (Urban Wastewater Sludge) with the aim of obtaining safe and sustainable bio-based products.

Each PDA will contain detailed implementation assistance and a defined Circular Business Model tailored to each participating lighthouse city, as well as financing mechanisms to be used for mobilising investment. Moreover, HOOP will launch stakeholder engagement and citizen science initiatives to allow for the co-design of an improved collection of OFMSW for its later optimum valorisation. It will promote behavioural change and acceptability of biowaste-based products, as well as food waste prevention.

The  HOOP Project will also feature the  HOOP Urban Circular Bioeconomy Hub (UCBH), an online platform that will provide opportunities to replicate the PDAs of the lighthouse cities in other follower cities (currently composed by 26 committed cities from all around Europe) – under the launch of the Network of Follower European Cities. The  HOOP lighthouse cities will act as demonstrators to transfer circular biobased economy models throughout Europe and beyond.

The  HOOP project will create an ever-growing network of follower European cities that can share with each other their best practices and lessons learned in their journey towards developing an Urban Circular Bioeconomy.

 HOOP continues the work of the projects VALUEWASTE, Scalibur and WaystUP!, all three funded under topic CE-SFS-25-2018 and coordinated by the three technical leaders of  HOOP . This is the perfect moment for  HOOP , as the results of 15 ongoing pilots to produce bio-based products (proteins, lipids, chemical commodities, bioplastics, and bio-pesticides) will be fed into the present project’s process, which will in turn lay the groundwork for successful tendering, industrialisation and production in participating cities.

The  HOOP Consortium covers the whole value chain, from biowaste recovery to valorisation and characterization of the final products and unites complementary stakeholders with the deep multi-disciplinary knowledge crucial to PDA creation and the achievement of project objectives. It includes partners from 10 EU member countries, 5 municipalities and 3 clusters of cities, and brings together 6 SMEs, 2 large companies, 7 research organisations and 1 university.

The  HOOP project bridges the gap between circular economy plans and investments, boosting sustainability and competitiveness in Europe.