Boosting the uptake of emerging technologies in circular economy implementation in construction and buildings industry in Danube region to sustainably harness the tween transition for greener future

The construction and building industry in Danube region depletes resources, generates over a third of the total waste and emits greenhouse gases at large scale - more in lagging countries and less in the innovations' pioneers in the area. The fragmented and risk-averse construction sector is slow to adopt digital innovation across Danube area. Digital technologies serve as a prerequisite for a shift to circular constructions where building materials are reused. The circular economy (CE) has the potential to capitalise upon emerging digital technologies, such as big data, artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain and the Internet of things (IoT), amongst others. These digital technologies combined with business model innovation are deemed to provide solutions to myriad problems in the diverse Danube region, related to CE transformation. Applying new approaches and inter-sectoral solutions, the project aims to capture the essence of the achievement at the intersection of the CE and digital technologies with a focus on forging pathways of CE implementation across Danube countries. Federating efforts from quadruple-helix players, a well-functioning DR innovation ecosystem with a new Cluster for increasing regional capacities to absorb innovation will be formed to promote interregional RDI cooperation, exchanging crosssectoral experiences between innovation actors from leading and lagging Danube countries. Barriers to digitalisation-led CE transition will be identified and related policies - improved. iImportant and applicable innovations for achieving the digitalisation enabled CE will be sought. Three pilots will be implemented to showcase how disruptive innovations for circular economy interventions can harness the ‘clean construction” practices in Danube region. New Danube region strategy for improving circularity in the construction and building business will be deployed, agreed and popularised, with 13 national action plans and 1 Plan for up-scaling the Pilots.