On March 12th, 2019, NERDA Development Association, partner of Danube S3 Cluster project has triggered the process of entrepreneurial discovery by organizing the 1st Entrepreneurial Discovery Focus Group (EDFG) on Business Models that Work in Circular Economy sectoral theme. This event has taken place in Tuzla, Bosnia Herzegovina and gathered 40 participants from the Quadruple Helix (entrepreneurs, academia and research, public sector and civil society) from all partner regions along the Danube together with local relevant actors.

See the Photo Gallery of the event here: dtp.interreg-danube.eu/approved-projects/danube-s3-cluster/gallery?project_gallery=The+1st+Entrepreneurial+Discovery+Focus+Group+-+12+of+March%2C+Tuzla

The event, part of the Activation of the Entrepreneurial Discovery Process used for the development of the Danube S3 Cluster Strategy, followed the methodology developed by the Joint Research Center (JRC) of the European Commission for the Entrepreneurship Discovering Mechanism.

This Entrepreneurial Discovery Focus Group is part of a series of events that will be organized this year on the following cross-sectoral themes:

• Healthy Food – 25th June 2019, Romania;
• Open Innovation in Clusters – September 2019, Moldova;
• Market Intelligence in Clusters – October 2019, Ukraine.

This event has provided the opportunity for the clusters and participating regions to bring together the knowledge and innovation potential through collaboration and mutual learning in a transnational process, thus allowing the exchange of know-how and best practices from Western regions to the Eastern regions, generating an innovation ecosystem in which academia and the business community work together, in coordination with regional authorities and civil society, to transform their knowledge into innovative products, services and skills.

During the first part of the meeting IFKA (the knowledge generator partner) has presented best practices on Circular Business Models (such as Sustainable Farming Systems, GroCycle – growing mushroom from coffee beans, Liquid Bread from Bread, Nutrient Recycling).

During the second part of the meeting, participants have split and worked actively on 2 working groups (More efficient business through the development of new circular business models and Finding partners through the identification of synergies on the basis of waste as a resource and developing business models based on exchange of good business practices). During this session, participants have identified the challenges clusters are facing when shifting to the circular economy and have generated several business ideas mostly focusing on resource efficiency, the use of alternative resources, the reduction of waste and hazardous waste.