● Identify the obstacles and barriers for companies to transform into the sustainable and circular design. 

● Assess design state-of-the-art and best practices or solutions in the context of each partnership’s use cases, covering the entire value chain (cradle-to-cradle approach). 

● Develop and implement scenarios and processes for cross-border and cross-value-chain knowledge sharing transfer of best practices, optimising the use of resources, minimising negative social or environmental impacts, and ensuring economic viability. 

● Close the loop and knowledge gap between the manufacturing sector and the consumer-facing actors, bringing consumer and stakeholder knowledge to manufacturers, with specific action plans. 

● Provide mentorship and advisory support to the SMEs involved in the programme to integrate circular strategies and practices into their value chain, covering circular design, new business models, R&D and technology, funding and financing and brand & marketing strategies. 

● Create the environment for the scaling of solutions and technologies by fomenting collaboration across companies and other key stakeholders (policymakers, associations, financial entities, etc.) across the spectrum (i.e. manufacturers, technical labs, agents, designers, retailers and so on) to achieve collaboration through a “one vision, one action” plan. 

● Establish co-creative opportunities between R&D (academia and research labs) and business to create new business opportunities. 

● Increase investment opportunities and provide financial support; creating networking events to showcase the SMEs projects and enabling pitching forums to raise additional funds. 

● Regular proactive monitoring and feedback reporting on the integrated circular strategies and improving / adjusting wherever required, ensuring effective communication of project results and impacts. 

● Relationship building with the public sector and creating a community-based model in which the civil society can participate and feedback the SMEs activities, and even contribute financially (e.g., crowdsourcing and crowdfunding). 

● Creating close alliances between designers (with a focus on Milan and Paris) and the industry (with a focus on Spain and Italy) to end the conventional relationship, boosting and creating a collaborative circular design thinking approach throughout the value chain.