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About Us
The CE Center – Support Center for Circular Economy – was established to streamline policy-relevant research related to the circular economy in Flanders. It brings together researchers from four universities (KU Leuven, UHasselt, UGent, University of Antwerp) and VITO.
Together, they build on the research results of previous support centers:
- SuMMa, active from 2012 to 2016.
- Support Center for Circular Economy, active from 2017 to 2021.
The current CE Center is active from 2022 to 2026. It is funded by OVAM and the Department of Economy, Science and Innovation (EWI).
Check the management agreement of the CE Center.
Policy research
Policy research
The support center conducts scientific research into how the government can monitor, stimulate, and contextualize the circular economy. It has a dual objective:
- Translating scientific insights into support and recommendations for policy.
- Making knowledge accessible to policymakers, stakeholders, and the broader public.
The support center also develops a scientific knowledge network that positions itself nationally and internationally as a center of expertise on circular economy.
Long- and short-term assignments
The support center combines long-term research with short-term assignments. This allows researchers to work on concrete cases that cut across all research domains. One example: how can policy influence the use of bio-based materials, from raw materials and product development to usage and end-of-life.
5 Focus areas
The CE Center focuses on five key topics:
- Further development of the CE Monitor
- Scenario development and trend analysis related to the circular economy
- Socio-economic effects of policy
- Legal bottlenecks
- Discourse, behavior, and governance strategies
