NICER INSIGHT REPORT: ROADMAPS AND WHOLE SYSTEM TRANSITIONS

CE HUB 2025

NICER PROGRAMME INSIGHT REPORT

This report presents an overview of the roadmap research activities undertaken and the key insights gained through collaborative discussions held through a series of webinar talks by researchers from each of the five Circular Economy Centres and the CE-Hub of the NICER Programme (Annex 1).

In the first year of the NICER programme, the CEHub and each of the Circular Economy (CE) Centres contributed their initial insights towards a ‘Ministerial roadmap’ document prepared for Defra (Nov 2021) as part of a Vision 2050 exercise. These initial roadmap insights were then revisited at an Impacts and Legacy Workshop held in conjunction with the NICER programme Mid-term Review (Jan 2023). The Insights Activity was an outcome from that mid-term review.

The transition towards a UK circular economy requires a whole system approach. This means that, in addition to accelerating knowledge at the resource and sector level, there are a number of agnostic system level enablers or drivers that can be applied to accelerate adoption at scale. The purpose of the NICER Insight Report Series is therefore to highlight learning from across the NICER Programme in relation to these system wide enablers. This particular Insights activity on Roadmaps and Whole Systems Transitions was conducted through a series of monthly webinars organised and hosted by Met4Tech (held January to May 2024) where Researchers from the CE-Hub and five Centres presented their approaches to roadmaps and shared the initial findings (Annex 1). The presenters are included as authors to this Insights report prepared by the Met4Tech organisers (Pettit and Wall).

This Insights activity covers key questions such as:

• What is a circular economy roadmap and why is this important;
• Which types of roadmaps are being created and applied in NICER;
• What are the key findings from each Centre; and,
• What are the learning lessons for next time?