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Project title

Crowdsourced Knowledge to drive SME Circular Economy Engagement

Primary Funding Agency

Environmental Protection Agency

Co-Funding Organisation(s)

n/a

Lead Organisation

Maynooth University (MU)

Lead Applicant

Peter Mooney

Project Abstract

It is not easy for SMEs to engage in circular economy practices or change their business models and strategies to undertake transformation to circular economic operations. The potential benefits of the circular economy are clear and are stated widely but achieving those benefits is not straightforward because activities aimed at driving the circular economy forward means businesses face many barriers which inhibit their ability to implement these approaches. SMEs typically face greater constraints with the availability of resources that those faced by larger companies According to available data in 2021 there were 234,180 micro, 17,147 small and 2,901 medium enterprises in Ireland. It would be impossible to understand the circular economy ambitions, engagements, achievements, and barriers for all of these enterprises. It is crucial to devise a systematic, scalable and efficient approach to identifying the barriers and opportunities for Irish SME circular economic practices. The CSCEE Crowdsourced Knowledge to drive SME Circular Economy Engagement project will deliver an innovative approach to gaining this knowledge. CSCEE begins with a comprehensive desk-based review of current Irish SME CE engagement landscape to understand the baseline situation. The project will then undertake the design, develop and deliver an innovative and scalable crowdsourcing-based approach to obtaining feedback, knowledge and experiences from a large number of SMEs. During this phase of the project a number of co-creation workshops will be organised. Over the course of 3 workshops SMEs from different sectors will have an opportunity to participate. At the conclusion of this phase of the project a co-designed software-based crowdsourcing application will be deployed for a six month crowdsourcing campaign involving SMEs and their circular economy engagement experiences. When the crowdsourcing campaign has been completed the CSCEE project enters its final phase of evaluation and recommendation. The input gathered (stored within a database of all qualitative responses) from the crowdsourcing campaign will be synthesised and analysed to identify the barriers and opportunities to Irish SME Circular Economy activities and practices. These findings will be delivered using a number of communication strategies/tools which are adjusted to our target audiences. Our communication and dissemination strategy will ensure that our findings and recommendations could be mainstreamed into practice across various industry sectors participating in this research. The pathways in CSCEE for achieving all our expected outcomes are credible and the contribution of the project results to the national understanding of SME engagement with Circular Economy activities are significant. The CSCEE project is a novel and timely project, and it will contribute significantly to the knowledge of SME implementation and engagement with Circular Economy activities. Few studies have analysed the implementation of CE activities in business and the barriers companies have had to overcome. CSCEE will contribute to filling this knowledge gap.

Grant Approved

�180,252.54

Research Hub

Green and Circular Economy

Research Theme

n/a

Start Date

31/03/2023

Initial Projected Completion Date

30/03/2025