Blue Circular Nets

Programme 2021 - 2027 Interreg VI-B Northern Periphery and Arctic

Date of latest update: 2026-01-12

Description

Description (EN):

Marine litter has received a lot of attention in the past years as a most vivid sign of the degradation of our oceans’ health. Single use plastics (SUP) and fishing gear are the main sources of marine litter in Europe, and significant steps have been taken to tackle this issue. Many SUP products have been phased out of production and have been replaced with products that are made from less harmful materials. However, transition from plastics to more degradable materials is not possible when it comes to fishing gear. Other actions are needed to decrease the impact of fishing gear in the pollution of marine environment. When fishing nets are approaching their end-of-life (EOL), the nets should be collected and disposed appropriately. SUP directive, Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and the Ports Reception Directive are pushing the whole sector towards this direction, but setting up a collection network in the demanding NPA circumstances requires extra efforts from all of those involved. On the other hand, this offers also an opportunity to recycle and eventually also reuse the collected materials, which is in align with the EU’s goals for Circular Economy and resource efficiency. The CIRCNETS project is following in the footsteps of previously implemented NPA projects of Circular Ocean, Blue Circular Economy and Blue Circular Tech, which have demonstrated, that this issue requires transnational approach. CIRCNETS is utilising outcomes of these projects and taking them further. The main outcome is a Blueprint for collection, treatment and reuse of EOL fishing gear for the NPA region and in delivering this CIRCNETS also prepares the stakeholders involved in fishing business for the implementation of these legislative changes. In the above mentioned projects certain aspects related to the issue have been already addressed, but these have lacked both the geographical extent and holistic view on the collection, recycling and re-use, which CIRCNETS will deliver.

Actual Achievements (EN):

The main focus during the first reporting period was on setting the project up and starting the first actual activities of the project. Recruitment and other administrative issues at the beginning of the project delayed a little the implementation of the project and the kick-off meeting of the project was postponed to April (Sotenäs, Sweden, 17.-19. April 2023). Internal communication procedures (monthly - or more frequent if necessary - virtual partner meeting), each partner set up a project team within their organisation and the partnership agreement was drafted and signed in April. It was decided to take the kick-off meeting to Sotenäs, as this provided an excellent opportunity to get to know in detail, how the marine recycling center operates. The aim of the kick off meeting was also to go through in detail the implementation plan of the project and the more detailed plans for the first activities of the Work Packages, which were presented by the WP leaders and discussed by the partners. The first concrete activity that was started, was Activity 1.1. NPA port review. University of Oulu drafted an online survey for the partners to be used, which was updated based on their feedback. The partners also shared the draft with some organisations working with these issues to get expert feedback on it before it was sent to the ports. Partners also gathered information about the ports located in their region, to whom the survey should be sent. UO managed to open the survey in May-June, but the results could not be analysed yet by the end of the first reporting period. Some other partners opened the survey in June, whereas others decided to postpone the opening of the survey to August due to the holiday season. There has been some contacts with couple other EU funded projects, which work with similar issues. These include Central Baltic Sea programme's RE-FISH and PlastLIFE SP funded by the LIFE programme. Future collaboration with these projects has been drafted. During the second reporting period the partners completed the port review. Results of the online survey and site visits were analysed and included in the drafted Port Review report. The partners opened also a similar online survey in autumn for aquaculture companies operating in the NPA region. The aim of this survey was to find out, whether separate collection of EOL fishing gear is carried out in aquaculture just as was done with fishing ports. Since SMEs were slow to respond, the online surveys were still open by the end of 2023, but some preliminary results were already analysed and included in the Port Review report. Once the aquaculture survey is completed in early 2024, the findings will be included in the final version of the Port Review report in which separate collection of EOL fishing gear is discussed in detail. As the project was still in the opening phase, there was also a lot of dissemination activities during the second reporting period. The aim of these activities was to promote the project and raise awareness about the EOL fishing gear collection and recycling in general. The project and collection of EOL fishing gear got nationwide attention in August, as the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE joined the Finnish project team on their site visit to Lumijoki fishing port and the news made it all the way to the main evening news broadcast. The story was also on YLE's radio news and in online news (https://yle.fi/a/74-20043437), and also a local radio in the Oulu region interviewed the project coordinator. Some print media outlets picked up the story as well. In November the project was also present at the Arctic Plastic Symposium in Iceland (with a poster) and in the first International Conference on Ghost Gear in Norway (with a presentation). These venues provided and excellent opportunity to promote both the topic itself and the project in particular. Finally, before the end of the year, the first edition of the project newsletter, Gus Gull's Gull Bulletin was also published. The third reporting period of the project has seen a lot of progress in several different fields of the project. The first major deliverable of the project, D.1.1.1 NPA Port Review, saw the daylight during Spring 2024 and is worth of a closer look. The hefty report provides a general overview of the role of fishing and aquaculture in the NPA countries and the state of legislation related to EOL fishing gear collection. The main outcome of the report is that it summarises the findings of the port and aquaculture surveys about disposal practices of fishing gear in partner countries. These surveys were organised in each partner country to find out the state of EOL fishing gear collection, and the results revealed that there are huge differences in the collection and recycling volumes between the countries. In Iceland, for instance, the collection rate of the EOL fishing gear is close to 80 percents, whereas in the opposite end, in the Finnish NPA are, this has not been carried out at all. The main findings of D.1.1.1 were picked up and further analysed in D.2.1.1 Development report for NPA EOL collection system. The report included also examples from this field from other regions, so called Best Applied Technology (BAT) case studies. These provided insight into how this matter had been approached elsewhere and which could be applied perhaps also in the NPA region. A further angle to this issue is a review of Life Cycle Assessment of fishing gear recycling and related materials, which was started towards the end of the reporting period. The aim of this work is to provide a holistic look into the impacts of EOL collection and recycling from the perspective of Life Cycle Asssesment: What kind of environmental impacts is generated through this operation, do the benefits exceed the negative impacts, which are these, etc.? This task will be completed later on. Other activities, that were implemented under WP2 included the first Economic potential workshops (D.2.2.1). The first one was organised in Ålesund, Norway (in connection to the partner meeting) in May. Representatives of different stakeholder groups - fishing, aquaculture, recycling, etc. - took part in these events. The workshop in Ålesund was kicked off by a seminar in hybrid mode, which was also an EMD in My Country event that gathered participants cross the Europe. A further aspect of the workshop was that it included not only Economic potential issues, but it was organised as a joint event of A.3.2, which addresses EPR issues. The event provided a means for the project to inform the stakeholders about the upcoming EPR legislation and about the business possibilities related to this, but also to hear opinions and ideas about this from the field. Another workshop, based on the same model of combining these two approaches, was organised later in June by the Swedish partner, and similar events will be organised also later on in the project in other partner countries. There has been a lot of stakeholder engagement and dissemination in the third reporting period, in addition to the above mentioned seminar and workshops. The project was also present in the annual European Maritime Day event, which was organised in May in Svendborg, Denmark. The aim of this event was to network with other organisations working on these issues and also to get firsthand experience about the EMD in general and about the workshops. The aim is that CIRCNETS would try to organise a workshop in connection to the next EMD, which will be organised in Cork, Ireland, in May 2025. Other activities that the project partners have been actively pursuing are the remaining deliverable reports of WP1. D.1.2.1 Fishing gear report: Review on quantities and qualities of fishing gear in the NPA area has turned out to be a difficult report to compile, due to unforeseen gaps in the available information about fishing gear entering the market and about the fishing gear volumes in use. The task has been delayed due to these gaps. The other output of WP1 is D.1.3.1 EOL fishing gear report: Review of EOL gear collection and responsibilities in the NPA region. This report will also include information about the current recycling capacity in the NPA countries, which is vital information, as transition period for collection of EOL fishing gear ends in EU countries and collected volumes are expected to increase. Work has also progressed in WP3 with the D.3.1.1. Report about the implementation of EPR in other sectors, which will be completed in the following reporting period.

Project outputs: Model outlining the findings and potential policy recommendations models for national policy makers(EN)
EOL Emerging Technologies model (EN)
Blueprint for setting up collection and recycling system in the NPA region(EN)
CIRCNETS transnational partnership(EN)

Thematic information

Coastal management and maritime issues Waste and pollution

Priority: (VI-B_NPaA_2) Strengthening the capacity for climate change adaptation, and resource sufficiency in NPA communities

Priority specific objective: RSO2.6. Promoting the transition to a circular and resource efficient economy

Priority policy objective (Interreg specific objective): PO2 A greener, low-carbon transitioning towards a net zero carbon economy and resilient Europe by promoting clean and fair energy transition, green and blue investment, the circular economy, climate change mitigation and adaptation, risk prevention and management, and sustainable urban mobility

Type of intervention: 072 Use of recycled materials as raw materials compliant with the efficiency criteria

Partners (7)

Lead Partner: University of Oulu

Partner’s ID if not PIC: FI02458955

Department: Water, Energy and Environmental Engineering Research Unit (WE3)

Address: Pentti Kaiteran tie , 90014 University of Oulu, Finland

Department address: -, 90014 University of Oulu, Finland

Legal status: public

Organisation type: Higher education and research organisations

Website: http://www.oulu.fi

Total budget: EUR 367 360.00

Partner’s programme co-financing: EUR 238 784.00

Partner’s programme co-financing rate: 65.00%

Partner contribution: EUR 128 576.00

Contractors:

Name: Pohjoisen panimo Maistila Oy
VAT registration or tax identification number: 2660368-6
Name: Juvenes Oy
VAT registration or tax identification number: 0155602-7
Name: Viikinkiravintola Harald Oy
VAT registration or tax identification number: 2208168-1
Name: Punamusta Oy
VAT registration or tax identification number: 1735961-8
Name: Lapin Messut Oy
VAT registration or tax identification number: 2082378-4
Name: Scancap Finland Oy
VAT registration or tax identification number: 1103853-0
Name: Vihiluodon Kala Oy
VAT registration or tax identification number: 1438010-4
Name: Design Inspis Oy
VAT registration or tax identification number: 2855786-3

Sotenäs kommun

Name: Sotenäs kommun

Department: Division for Development and Strategy/Sotenäs center of Symbiosis

PIC (Participant Identification Code): 901013310

Partner’s ID if not PIC: SE212000132201

Address: Parkgatan, 46531 Kungshamn, Sweden

Department address: Abba Hagabergs Industrigata, 45632 Kungshamn, Sweden

Legal status: public

Organisation type: Local public authority

Website: http://www.sotenas.se

Total budget: EUR 200 000.00

Partner’s programme co-financing: EUR 130 000.00

Partner’s programme co-financing rate: 65.00%

Partner contribution: EUR 70 000.00

Marine Ecological Solutions

Name: Marine Ecological Solutions

PIC (Participant Identification Code): 938975424

Partner’s ID if not PIC: IS-80703

Address: Saevidarsund , IS-104 Reykjavik, Iceland

Legal status: private

Organisation type: SME

Website: http://www.polardoors.com

Total budget: EUR 199 997.00

Partner’s programme co-financing: EUR 129 998.05

Partner’s programme co-financing rate: 65.00%

Partner contribution: EUR 69 998.95

GBER schemes / de minimis: GBER Article 20

Contractors:

Name: KEF Parking
VAT registration or tax identification number: No VAT
Name: Kronan
VAT registration or tax identification number: 62065
Name: Sjavargrillid restaurant
VAT registration or tax identification number: 107681
Name: Brimrun
VAT registration or tax identification number: 35966
Name: Mar Eco
VAT registration or tax identification number: No VAT

National University of Ireland Galway

Name: National University of Ireland Galway

Department: College of Science and Engineering, School of Civil Engineering

PIC (Participant Identification Code): 999978045

Partner’s ID if not PIC: IE0022578J

Address: University road, H91 TK33 Galway, Ireland

Department address: -, - -, Ireland

Legal status: public

Organisation type: Higher education and research organisations

Website: https://www.nuigalway.ie/

Total budget: EUR 189 219.12

Partner’s programme co-financing: EUR 122 992.42

Partner’s programme co-financing rate: 65.00%

Partner contribution: EUR 66 226.70

Western Development Commission

Name: Western Development Commission

Department: Regional Development

PIC (Participant Identification Code): 953493414

Partner’s ID if not PIC: IE9588395N

Address: Dillon House, F45 WY26 Ballaghaderreen, Ireland

Department address: -, - -, Ireland

Legal status: public

Organisation type: Regional public authority

Website: http://www.westerndevelopment.ie

Total budget: EUR 231 397.78

Partner’s programme co-financing: EUR 150 408.55

Partner’s programme co-financing rate: 65.00%

Partner contribution: EUR 80 989.23

Contractors:

Name: Clean Technology Centre
VAT registration or tax identification number: 3714786EH

Norges teknisk-naturvetenskapelige Universitet (NTNU)

Name: Norges teknisk-naturvetenskapelige Universitet (NTNU)

Department: International Business

Partner’s ID if not PIC: NO 974767880

Address: Postboks 8900, Torgarden, 7491 Trondheim, Norway

Department address: -, - -, Norway

Legal status: public

Organisation type: Higher education and research organisations

Website: http://ntnu.no

Total budget: EUR 311 995.56

Partner’s programme co-financing: EUR 155 997.78

Partner’s programme co-financing rate: 50.00%

Partner contribution: EUR 155 997.78

Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet

Name: Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet

Department: International Business

Partner’s ID if not PIC: NO 974767880

Address: Postboks 8900, Torgarden, 7491 Trondheim, Norway

Department address: -, - -, Norway

Legal status: public

Organisation type: Higher education and research organisations

Website: http://ntnu.no

Total budget: EUR 311 995.56

Partner’s programme co-financing: EUR 155 997.78

Partner’s programme co-financing rate: 50.00%

Partner contribution: EUR 155 997.78

Partners map

Partners and Projects info

Municipality of Sotenäs

Blue Circular Nets

Partners and Projects info

Marine Ecological Solutions

Blue Circular Nets

Partners and Projects info

National University of Ireland Galway

Blue Circular Nets

Partners and Projects info

Western Development Commission

Blue Circular Nets

Partners and Projects info

Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Blue Circular Nets

Partners and Projects info

University of Oulu

Blue Circular Nets

Partners and Projects info

NTNU

Blue Circular Nets

Lead partner

Project partner

Summary

Project name (EN): Blue Circular Nets

Project acronym: CIRCNETS

Project ID: NPA0100004

Project start date: 2023-01-01

Project end date: 2025-12-31

Project status: closed

Relevant linked projects:

Baltic Sea Region project MARELITT (EN) | Plans for litter reception facilities and recycling in the Baltic Sea region (EN), Fiskereturen.se (EN) | Experiences from the collection of EOL fishing gear in Sweden (EN), Smart policyutveckling för producentansvaret för fiskeredskap av plast, SPIRAL (EN) | Experiences from introduction of EPR for EOL fishing gear in Sweden (EN)

Relevant mentions and prizes:

Total budget/expenditure: EUR 1 499 969.46

Total EU funding (amount): EUR 642 184.97

Total EU funding (co-financing rate): 65.00%

Co-financing sources:

ERDF: Amount, EUR 642 184.97. Co-financing rate, 65.00%.
ERDF equivalent: Amount, EUR 129 998.05. Co-financing rate, 65.00%. Sources, IS.
ERDF equivalent: Amount, EUR 155 997.78. Co-financing rate, 50.00%. Sources, NO.
Others: Amount, EUR 129 998.05.

Investments, deliverables, policy contributions

(bullets are inserted automatically and may be incorrectly placed)

Deliverables:

NPA Port Report: Review of the current gear collection and disposal practices in NPA fishing ports
Fishing gear report: Review on quantities and qualities of fishing gear in the NPA area
EOL fishing gear report: Review of EOL gear collection and responsibilities in the NPA region
Dissemination campaign for professional and recreational fishers
Development report for NPA EOL collection system
EOL Economic potential workshop
EOL economic potential webinars
EOL Economic report
Regional EOL technology audit needs
EOL Technology best practice report
Information campaign (workshops, webinars , misc. activities) to inform/advise on EOL EPR impacts
Report on issues with implementation of EPR scheme for EOL fishing gear within the NPA region
Report about the implementation of EPR in other sectors
Workshops
Webinars
Report
Dissemination campaign for professional and recreational fishers
Journal article

Contribution to wider strategies and policies:

EUStrategyBalticSeaRegion PA Hazards. Supporting preventive measures, which PA Hazards is working with. Contributing to proper disposal of EOL fishing gear
EuropeanGreenDeal Protecting the environment and oceans with the Green Deal - moving towards a circular economy & improving waste management. Blueprint for collection, recycling and reuse of EOL fishing gear.
AtlanticStrategy Pillar 4. Coastal resilience and healthy oceans. Supporting actions against marine litter by contributing to proper disposal of EOL fishing gear.
SeaBasinStrategyArcticOcean Supporting actions against environmental degradation by contributing to proper disposal of EOL fishing gear.
Other Supporting HELCOM's goal of a “Baltic Sea unaffected by hazardous substances and litter". Contributing to proper disposal of EOL fishing gear.
Other Supporting the new approach for a sustainable blue economy in the EU. Making the NPA region ready for the renewal of the fishing gear design standards.
Other UN's Sustainable development goals. Contributing to proper disposal of EOL fishing gear, which supports the implementation of target 14.1, "By 2025, prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds, in particular from land-based activities, including marine debris and nutrient pollution"

Programme Common Output Indicator:

RCO 116 - Jointly developed solutions, Measurement unit:
RCO 087 - Organisations cooperating across borders, Measurement unit:

Programme Common Result Indicator:

RCR 104 - Solutions taken up or up-scaled by organisations, Measurement unit:

Project part of European Union Macro-Regional or Sea Basin Strategy: EUSBSR

EUSBSR Priority (Policy) area / Horizontal action:

EUSBSR Degree of compliance:

Information regarding the data in keep.eu on the programme financing this project

Financing programme

2021 - 2027 Interreg VI-B Northern Periphery and Arctic

Last month that data in keep.eu was retrieved from the Programme's website or received from the Programme

2026-01-12

No. of projects in keep.eu / Total no. of projects (% of projects in keep.eu)

65 / 65 (100%)

No. of project partnerships in keep.eu / Total no. of project partnerships (% of project partnerships in keep.eu)

316 / 316 (100%)

Notes on the data

Languages

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Blue Circular Nets

Description

Thematic information

Partners (7)

Partners map

Summary

Investments, deliverables, policy contributions

Information regarding the data in keep.eu on the programme financing this project

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