Circular economy training pilot projects - Sitra (archived)

Circular economy training pilot projects - Sitra (archived)

This is a historical reference page for Sitra’s call for funding for circular economy training pilot projects in vocational institutions and lifelong learning. The official Sitra source is now in the organisation’s archive. Its application window ran from 1 February to 31 March 2021, so this is not a live opportunity and applications cannot be submitted through it.

Sitra did not publish a new application window on the official call page. The page records the closed round, its terms, and the timetable for the funded work. Keep the historical deadline in the metadata because it is the real closing date; the historicalReference flag identifies this page as an archive entry rather than a currently expired listing that appears open to applications.

At a glance

What Sitra was funding

The call was designed to turn circular economy strategies into practical training. Sitra wanted educational content for the technology, chemical and construction sectors that could help those industries move towards a carbon-neutral circular economy. The focus was competence development, not general organisational support, a general business grant, or an unrestricted research award.

Examples in the call included a new circular economy course at a vocational institution, supplementary training for a defined professional group, an experiment carried out with businesses, and innovative educational materials. Sitra also identified several possible subject areas: modular planning, demolition and renovation in construction; new circular economy technologies in technology; the usability, sustainability or recyclability of materials in the chemical industry; and stronger circular economy competence among teachers.

The proposal needed to start with a specific competence need. Sitra was looking for a credible explanation of what workers, students or teachers did not yet know, why that gap mattered for a carbon-neutral circular economy, and how a training pilot would address it. A broad statement that circularity is important was not enough. The application had to connect the need to a defined audience and a practical intervention.

The call also placed weight on reach and continuity. Sitra wanted a few impactful projects rather than many small projects. Its stated aim was to fund one to three projects in each of the three sectors. A good project could be carried out with other educational institutions, businesses, public-sector organisations, municipalities or other relevant partners. It also had to show how the activity or its lessons could continue in the applicant’s own organisation or be disseminated to other educational institutions or industries.

Eligibility

The eligible applicant group was broader than vocational schools alone, but it was still education-specific. The call was open to vocational institutions and organisations offering lifelong learning content, including universities, colleges and similar parties. The project itself had to be relevant to circular economy competence in technology, chemical or construction work.

Only legal persons could submit an application. Sitra gave municipalities, limited companies, registered associations and foundations as examples. An individual could not apply in a personal capacity. A partnership or consortium could participate, but one applicant had to take primary responsibility for the funding agreement and make the required arrangements with the other consortium members. Every member of a consortium still had to meet the terms of the call.

Projects involving an undertaking or another entity engaged in economic activity were subject to de minimis aid rules. The applicant had to be eligible to receive de minimis aid up to the amount applied for and had to submit a de minimis notification to Sitra. The value of de minimis aid received during the current and two preceding tax years, including the benefit applied for, could not exceed EUR 200,000 under the terms stated in this call. Sitra explained that an entity’s economic activity depended on offering goods or services on a market, not simply on whether the entity was organised as a commercial company. Non-profit entities could therefore also fall under the state-aid rules when they offered goods or services on a market.

The funding was not intended for a project that simply continued an existing course or training programme unchanged. Sitra also warned against a small experiment run by one operator that reached only one course’s students, and against a pilot with no realistic prospect of becoming established or spreading after the funded work. Those exclusions make the intended standard clear: the pilot had to be new enough to teach something, practical enough to run, and structured so that other people could use its results.

Funding terms

The maximum amount was EUR 200,000 per chosen applicant. Sitra planned to choose one to three applicants from each of the technology, chemical and construction sectors. The amount of aid could cover 100% of the project funding, and the call stated that no own contribution was required.

That did not make the money unrestricted. Funding could be used only for project expenses specified in the follow-up and expense appendix to Sitra’s funding project. Overheads were eligible only when Sitra considered them justified for implementation and when they were included in the project plan or its appendices. The accepted overhead amount could not exceed 20% of the project’s total wages and social security contributions. Sitra would not compensate application expenses or other funding-related expenses.

The application therefore needed a real cost estimate rather than a headline budget. The applicant had to explain what would be developed, who would deliver it, which partners would participate, and how the requested amount related to the project plan. For an applicant subject to de minimis rules, the aid check had to be done before submission rather than after the project had been designed around an amount the organisation could not receive.

How the application worked

The application was submitted to Sitra by the deadline through a Webropol online form. The official call listed the information the form had to contain:

• contact details for the applicant organisation and contact person;
• the name of the idea;
• the specific competence need addressed by the pilot;
• how the pilot would be implemented;
• who the pilot would target;
• who would implement it and what expertise that party had;
• the partners with whom the pilot would be implemented;
• how the activity would continue after the project;
• why Sitra should choose the pilot;
• a cost estimate; and
• an estimate of de minimis aid eligibility.

The project proposal had to be the applicant’s own. The applicant also had to have undisputed intellectual property rights to the solution and the right to use and further develop it while implementing the project. The applicant was responsible for the accuracy of its information and for ensuring that the proposal did not infringe third-party rights. This was a funding call, not a procurement exercise: a proposal that asked Sitra to purchase or otherwise obtain services from the applicant could be rejected on that basis.

How Sitra assessed proposals

Assessment took place in two phases. In the first phase, Sitra experts reviewed all applications against predefined criteria. They looked for a competence need closely linked to a carbon-neutral circular economy, topical or forward-looking, affecting an extensive group, and not already sufficiently covered. The need had to be clearly described, with an explanation of why addressing it mattered.

The central part of the first-phase review was the solution idea, such as a training pilot. The application had to explain the target group, practical activities, participating partners, schedule, and delivery team. Sitra wanted novel, imaginative or innovative operating methods that developed circular economy expertise in practice. It also wanted the applicant to explain why its particular pilot was an effective answer to the competence need it had identified.

Continuity was another first-phase criterion. The application had to show how the pilot’s lessons or procedures could become a continuous activity in the applicant’s organisation or elsewhere. A proposal gained strength if it could explain how the learning would be established or disseminated efficiently.

The contact people for the highest-scoring first-phase projects were invited to meetings with Sitra and an industry-specific jury. The juries combined Sitra with sector representatives: the chemical jury included the Industrial Union and the Chemical Industry Federation of Finland; the construction jury included the Finnish Construction Trade Union and the Confederation of Finnish Construction Industries RT; and the technology jury included the Industrial Union and Technology Finland.

The second phase examined the qualified projects in more detail. The criteria included the significance and extent of the competence need, the realism and novelty of the implementation plan, the competence of the team, the project’s potential to develop the carbon-neutral circular economy, and the potential for the project to become permanent or be disseminated more widely. Sitra could propose developing a proposal or merging proposals during the selection process.

Timetable and outcome

The application period opened on Monday, 1 February 2021 at 9 a.m. Information webinars were planned for weeks 5, 8 and 11. Applications closed on Wednesday, 31 March 2021 at 5 p.m. Assessment began during the application period, with the strongest project teams interviewed in April. Sitra planned to select the funded participants by Friday, 30 April 2021.

The next stage was also specified. Project plans were to be approved and funding agreements signed by Wednesday, 30 June 2021. Projects were to be implemented by 31 March 2022, with final reports returned by 29 April 2022. Those dates are part of the closed call’s timetable; they are not future deadlines.

Sitra later reported the result on its official archived news page: four projects were chosen, and the total funding awarded was EUR 679,300. The selected work covered the same three sectors. Examples included an online construction training package by RATEKO, a demolition-work module developed by the Southwest Häme Education Consortium with Ytekki Oy and Kierivä Oy, circular economy expertise for machine shops from the Savo Consortium for Education and Savonia University of Applied Sciences, and chemical-industry training developed by the Federation of Education in Central Ostrobothnia with KIP Service. This outcome confirms that the call moved from application into funded pilot work.

What a similar applicant can learn from the archive

Although this round is closed, its requirements are useful when evaluating a comparable training proposal. Start with the competence gap, not with a generic circular economy slogan. Name the sector, the people who need the skill, the current shortfall, and the evidence that the need is meaningful. Then describe a pilot that can actually be delivered by the proposed team.

Partnerships should have a job to do. An educational institution might own the curriculum work, an employer might identify workplace needs or host testing, and a sector organisation might help spread the result. The application should make those responsibilities visible. Simply listing partners without describing their contribution would not answer Sitra’s evaluation questions.

The continuation plan should be part of the design from the beginning. Explain whether the pilot becomes a course module, a reusable training package, a teacher resource, a workplace learning model, or another defined activity. Identify who will maintain it, who can use it next, and how the lessons will be shared. A one-off workshop with no route to further use would be a poor fit for the archived criteria.

Budget discipline matters as well. Separate project delivery from application preparation, show why each cost is needed, and check the de minimis position when economic activity is involved. Make sure the proposal’s intellectual property position is clear and that the requested aid is tied to the project expenses Sitra could fund.

Bottom line

Do not treat this page as an active funding listing. The official Sitra source documents a 2021 call that closed on 31 March 2021, followed by selection, agreements, implementation and reporting. No later application cycle is announced on that official call page. Use it as a historical reference for a Finland-focused vocational or lifelong-learning pilot in circular economy skills, especially where the project has a defined competence need, credible sector partners, a practical training method, and a plan for continued or wider use.

Official source

The authoritative archived call is Sitra’s “Call for funding for circular economy training pilot projects in vocational institutions and lifelong learning”:

https://arkisto.sitra.fi/en/articles/call-for-funding-for-circular-economy-training-pilot-projects-in-vocational-institutions-and-lifelong-learning/

Sitra’s archived announcement of the four funded projects provides the outcome context:

https://arkisto.sitra.fi/en/news/sitra-to-provide-funding-for-four-circular-economy-training-pilot-projects-aimed-at-developing-new-expertise-and-competitiveness/