Coalescing Circular and Digital Servitization Transitions of Manufacturing Companies: The Circular Economy Digital Innovation Hub

The Circular Economy (CE) paradigm, accelerated within the context of Industry 4.0, has been increasingly applied both inside and outside the manufacturing domain. The set of new capabilities and skills developed through I4.0 need to be augmented and enhanced to conform to the Triple Bottom Line perspective, initially affecting supply chains management and then expanding towards entrepreneurship, business model development, innovation management and societal development. Research shows that there is a significant potential to address the complex challenges towards a more sustainable and resilient society by cross-fertilizing these disciplines through the CE perspective, via provisioning new courses and practical cases. For this reason, the joint CE-I4.0 evolution needs to be grounded on a new set of knowledge and best practices. The CERES project recognizes the need to shift the restricted focus of CE from firms to a more extended and system-level view that considers skills, competences and knowledge needs. This would catalyse the embracement of CE under a social development perspective from the preliminary stage of training and education. This paper presents the CERES’ new innovation ecosystem, the Circular Economy Digital Innovation Hub (CE-DIH), aimed to promote connectedness among its stakeholders and to generate a systematized set of services, skills, competences and knowledge able to support the multi-faceted CE domain. The CE-DIH not only can raise awareness but can also provide the most suitable and complete set of services able to support the circular enrichment and transition of both companies on the market and individuals in society.