On 31 October 2026, the INSET – Industrial Symbiosis for Enterprises and Training project officially came to an end after three years of collaboration, innovation and capacity building across Europe.
However, the end of the project does not mean the end of its journey. One of INSET’s core ambitions has always been to ensure that its results remain available, accessible and useful long after the project lifetime. From the very beginning, the consortium designed a sustainability strategy focused on maintaining and exploiting project outcomes beyond October 2026.
During its 36-month implementation, the consortium brought together organisations from France, Spain, Slovenia, Lithuania and Italy to strengthen knowledge, skills and awareness around Industrial Symbiosis and its role in enabling a more sustainable and circular economy. The project delivered a comprehensive capacity-building methodology, a digital training toolkit, a policy brief for decisionmakers and an open-access Industrial Symbiosis Observatory.
Among these achievements, one of the most tangible examples of the project’s long-term vision is the Industrial Symbiosis Observatory (Home – IS Observatory), an open digital platform that gathers policies, projects, tools, training opportunities, research and best practices related to Industrial Symbiosis from across Europe. The Observatory was created to make knowledge easier to access, foster cooperation among stakeholders and support the practical implementation of circular economy principles.
The Observatory is not simply a final project deliverable. It is a living platform designed to continue growing over time. By providing a centralised space where organisations can explore and share knowledge, it ensures that the results of INSET remain relevant, visible and actively used by enterprises, public authorities, researchers, innovation agencies and training providers.
For Syxis, VšĮ, which played a key role in developing several of the project’s digital solutions, the conclusion of INSET marks the beginning of a new chapter. The methodologies, digital tools and expertise generated throughout the project will continue to support future initiatives, helping organisations adopt more sustainable, collaborative and resource-efficient practices.
The same commitment is shared by the entire INSET partnership. Project partners will continue integrating INSET results into their training programmes, innovation services, research activities and stakeholder networks, ensuring that the project’s knowledge and resources remain available and continue creating value across Europe. This long-term commitment was embedded in the project’s sustainability plan from the outset.
As Europe accelerates its transition towards circularity, resource efficiency and climate neutrality, the achievements of INSET provide a strong foundation for future actions. The project has helped create not only new tools and resources, but also a growing community of organisations committed to making Industrial Symbiosis a practical reality.

Learn more at syxis.eu and inset-symbiosis.eu
Contact us: info@syxis.eu

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INSET concludes three years of cooperation for industrial symbiosis

As INSET reaches its final week, we celebrate the collective work of our partners, stakeholders and participants to support industrial symbiosis through knowledge, training and collaboration.

From identifying skills needs to developing practical resources and policy recommendations, INSET has built a foundation that others can use and develop further. Highlights include:

• A competency map informed by 70 studies, papers and articles, alongside a capacity building methodology.
• A toolkit bringing together an industrial symbiosis course, a web platform with 23 learning scenarios, a publication featuring 10 best practices and a practical networking handbook.
• Six promotional workshops with 202 participants recorded in total.
• An Industrial Symbiosis Observatory bringing together 137 resources, supported by a validation process involving 30 participants.
• A policy brief informed by a validation process involving 31 participants.
• A joint final webinar on the Observatory and policy work, with 83 participants recorded.

These results reflect the time, expertise and commitment of everyone involved. We warmly thank all consortium partners, the stakeholders who contributed their experience and feedback, and everyone who joined our workshops, validation activities and webinar. We also acknowledge the support of the European Union through Erasmus+.

The project is ending, but the opportunity to put its results into practice continues. We invite businesses, policymakers, educators and researchers to explore INSET’s resources, share them through their networks and use them to support new industrial symbiosis initiatives.

Thank you for being part of INSET!

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On 13 and 14 October 2026, the Centre de Congrès de l’Aube in Troyes hosted the eighth edition of the RESSOURCES Congress. Held every two years, the congress is organised by the Club d’Écologie Industrielle de l’Aube (CEIA) and co-organised with the SYNAPSE network, with the support of ADEME and other institutional and economic partners. The University of Strasbourg, one of the congress’s premium partners, took part to present INSET’s results and to connect the project’s European approach with the experience of practitioners working directly with businesses and territories.
The programme placed cooperation at the centre of the transition. Roundtables, twenty project pitches, practical workshops and site visits to Michelin and Kronprinz explored how economic actors can share resources, develop synergies and strengthen territorial resilience. Two workshops, on the role of territorial economic development organisations and on who can boost industrial synergies, addressed a central question for INSET: who helps industrial symbiosis happen, and what support do they need?

The CEIA: more than twenty years of local cooperation

Launched in 2003 by the Aube Département and run as an association since 2008, the CEIA is one of France’s pioneering industrial ecology initiatives. It brings together businesses, public authorities, professional organisations, and education and research institutions to encourage cooperation across the Aube territory. Its approach combines local knowledge, business networks and research expertise, notably through its close links with the University of Technology of Troyes.
The Club gives industrial symbiosis a practical foundation. It runs business workshops to identify potential synergies, supports collaborative projects, promotes the reuse of professional equipment, and offers training and opportunities to learn from operational examples. Hosting the RESSOURCES Congress extends this work: local experience becomes a resource that other territories can examine, discuss and adapt.

SYNAPSE and ADEME: connecting experience and supporting implementation

At national level, SYNAPSE connects the French industrial and territorial ecology community. Led by ADEME with an expert facilitation team, the network circulates knowledge, practical resources and experience between initiatives. Its new 2026-2028 cycle aims to strengthen cooperation between businesses and the territorial ecosystems that support them. For practitioners, this means learning from peers and building on approaches already tested elsewhere.
ADEME, the French Agency for Ecological Transition, provides expertise, advice, training and financial support to help businesses and public authorities move forward with their environmental transition. In industrial and territorial ecology, it supports local initiatives and coordinates the SYNAPSE network. Public support and shared expertise together connect circular economy ambitions with the organisational work required on the ground.
These complementary roles illustrate one principle: resource exchanges depend on relationships, facilitation and continuity. Creating the conditions for cooperation is itself part of the transition.

INSET: bringing European resources into the conversation

This made RESSOURCES a particularly relevant setting for INSET. Coordinated by the University of Strasbourg, this Erasmus+ project links capacity building, access to knowledge and policy support. Its results answer three complementary needs: developing skills, finding relevant information, and identifying measures that can support wider implementation.

For INSET, the congress offered a bridge between European project results and the communities that can put them to use. These resources can inform training, support territorial facilitators and feed policy discussions, alongside the experience already built by networks such as the CEIA and SYNAPSE.

A continuing collective effort

As INSET comes to an end on 31 October 2026, this connection is especially meaningful. The lasting value of its results will depend on the people who organise cooperation, support businesses and shape enabling policies. RESSOURCES brought these communities together and placed INSET’s results within a collective effort that continues beyond the project.
Explore the project’s resources at inset-symbiosis.eu/inset-resources.

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• PEOPLE – Make IS professions visible and recognised

Skilled facilitation is one of the most consistent enabling conditions for IS, yet planning and facilitation are not yet clearly recognised occupational profiles. The Brief proposes integrating relevant competences and profiles, such as the Industrial Symbiosis Planner and Industrial Symbiosis Project Manager, into existing national occupational classifications, qualifications frameworks and vocational education systems, then supporting their consolidation at European level through the ESCO classification.

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Only a small share of materials finds its way back into the economy. According to Eurostat, the EU’s circular material use rate reached 12.2% in 2024. That is its highest level yet, but still far from the goal of doubling it to 23.2% by 2030. The gap between Member States is wide, from 32.7% in the Netherlands to just 1.3% in Romania.

The policy agenda is moving: the European Commission has put a Circular Economy Act on its 2026 work programme. But technology and regulation alone will not close the gap. It takes people who can turn environmental goals into practical decisions. For students about to start work, understanding how organisations use resources, manage waste and cooperate with others is becoming useful in a growing number of professions.

INSET is supported by Erasmus+ and takes on this challenge directly. Through training, practical tools and knowledge sharing, it brings industrial symbiosis to learners and practitioners. It links an understanding of circular business models with the hands-on skills needed to make them work.

How industrial symbiosis works

Industrial ecology treats businesses as part of a wider system of material, energy and water flows. Industrial symbiosis turns this idea into practice through cooperation: a resource one organisation no longer needs can be valuable to another.
Surplus heat from an industrial process can warm a nearby facility. Suitable by-products can replace some of the raw materials another company uses. Organisations can also share infrastructure and services such as water treatment, logistics or energy supply.
Kalundborg, in Denmark, is the best-known example of what this cooperation can achieve over time. There, 16 public and private partners exchange water, energy and materials. Each year, the symbiosis saves 586,000 tonnes of CO₂ and 4 million m³ of groundwater, and recycles 62,000 tonnes of residual materials. Since 2015, its partners have cut their CO₂ emissions by 80%.
For students, this changes the questions they ask. Instead of only “How can this organisation reduce its waste?”, they learn to ask:

• Who could use this resource?
• Which partners would need to work together?
• What would make the exchange technically feasible, economically viable and environmentally beneficial?

Skills for every career path
Industrial symbiosis is not only for environmental specialists. Graduates going into management, purchasing, logistics, business development or public administration can all use this perspective to spot opportunities for cooperation and better use of resources.

• A purchasing professional might look for alternative material sources.
• A project officer could connect businesses with complementary needs.
• A territorial development officer might help companies, local authorities and research organisations work together.

Each of these roles calls for both analytical and interpersonal skills: mapping resource flows, assessing opportunities, communicating across disciplines and building trust. Technical knowledge matters, but cooperation succeeds when people can organise joint action. In practice, many industrial symbiosis initiatives depend on a facilitator who maps flows, brings companies to the table and keeps the dialogue going.

Practical resources for learners
INSET offers a 100-hour modular training programme with two learning pathways: IS Planner and IS Project Manager. On the Validu web platform, learners can follow the training and use practical resources, including a best-practice publication and a handbook for running industrial symbiosis networking sessions. Because it runs in a browser and is modular, the training fits around studies, internships or a job.
The project’s toolkit includes 10 industrial symbiosis case studies that show how cooperation works in different settings. It has already been used in a university course: at Kaunas University of Technology in Lithuania, 17 circular economy students used the toolkit in their coursework to link theory with real-world applications.

For students and recent graduates, these resources can support coursework, suggest dissertation topics and help them think through challenges they meet during internships or their first jobs.
A growing market for green skills
The job market makes these skills even more relevant. According to Eurostat, employment in the EU’s environmental economy reached 5.8 million full-time equivalents in 2023, up from 3.6 million in 2014. That is 2.2 million more jobs in less than a decade. Waste management and materials recovery alone grew from 0.9 to 1.3 million full-time equivalents over the same period.

This growth is expected to continue. The European Commission estimates that applying circular economy principles could add 0.5% to EU GDP and create around 700,000 new jobs by 2030.
Yet the supply of skilled people is not keeping up. LinkedIn’s Global Green Skills Report 2024 shows that demand for green talent grew by 11.6% between 2023 and 2024, while the supply of workers with green skills grew by only 5.6%. Workers with green skills were hired at a rate about 55% higher than the overall workforce.

Industrial symbiosis skills fit roles in circular economy projects, sustainability consulting, resource efficiency and business network coordination. Depending on their background, graduates can specialise in the field or bring these skills into the profession they already have.

Bringing the circular transition into university life
Our 28 September outreach had one clear aim: to get students involved in industrial ecology early, while they are still shaping their interests, gaining experience and weighing their career options. By raising INSET’s profile at the start of the academic year, we wanted to show that young people can help drive the circular transition through concrete career choices and collaborative projects.

Ready to get started? Explore the INSET learning resources and discover how industrial symbiosis can become part of your studies and your professional future.

Sources

• European Parliament, Sustainable waste management: what the EU is doing (Eurostat data, 2022)
• European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform, The circular material use rate in the EU reached the highest level yet in 2024 (Eurostat, November 2025)
• European Parliament, Legislative Train Schedule, Circular Economy Act
• Kalundborg Symbiosis, official website
• Eunews, Eurostat data on employment in the environmental economy (April 2026)
• eceee, EU unveils circular economy plan 2.0 (European Commission figures, March 2020)
• LinkedIn Economic Graph, Global Green Skills Report 2024

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Bioparks: connecting resources, businesses and territories

Bioparks can be much more than industrial areas specialising in bio-based activities. Planned with a circular economy approach, they can connect businesses, agriculture and infrastructure to make better use of local resources and create new economic opportunities.

Many territories bring together agricultural, livestock, forestry, agri-food and industrial activities. These generate resources that could be put to new uses —such as biomass, by-products, water, energy and nutrients— while businesses seek local sources of raw materials and energy, ways to reduce costs and greater resilience. Industrial symbiosis can help connect these needs by exploring how a resource left over from one activity could become an input for another.

For example, livestock manure can be used to produce biogas and energy, while the resulting digestate can return to agriculture as fertiliser. Agricultural residues and food-industry by-products can also be recovered, infrastructure can be shared, and waste heat from one activity can be used by another. Each opportunity depends on the characteristics of the territory, the resources available and businesses’ needs.

From industrial park to productive ecosystem

The difference between a conventional industrial park and a biopark lies in how relationships between businesses are planned. Proximity does more than make day-to-day operations easier: it creates opportunities to exchange resources, share services and develop new value chains. A biopark is therefore more than a greener industrial area; it is a productive ecosystem connected to the resources and needs of its territory.

This approach also changes how these areas are planned. Alongside deciding where businesses should locate, it is important to consider which resources are available, who could use them, and what infrastructure or conditions would enable connections. Taking these opportunities into account from the outset can help shape a site that supports synergies and attracts complementary activities.

However, locating businesses close to each other does not guarantee that they will collaborate. Opportunities need to be identified and assessed, participants’ needs understood, and technical, economic, regulatory and organisational issues coordinated. This is where the industrial symbiosis facilitator plays a key role.

Facilitators: turning opportunities into collaboration

An industrial symbiosis facilitator connects businesses, public authorities and other local stakeholders. They can help map resource flows, identify potential partners, assess opportunities and support participants as they develop projects. They also help build trust and coordinate people and organisations with different goals, expertise and needs.

In a biopark, this work can turn a potential opportunity into a practical collaboration: for example, by connecting biomass producers with businesses that can use it, or by coordinating several organisations to share infrastructure. Facilitation helps build relationships between activities and anchor projects in their local context.

The role requires a combination of knowledge and skills: understanding industrial symbiosis, analysing resources and business needs, communicating benefits, engaging stakeholders, and planning or managing projects. The development of bioparks and other industrial symbiosis initiatives therefore highlights the need for trained professionals who can make these collaborations happen.

Building skills in industrial symbiosis

INSET addresses this need through a training programme in industrial symbiosis, with two complementary pathways. IS Planner focuses on designing and planning initiatives, while IS Project Manager develops the skills needed to manage their implementation. Both pathways cover knowledge and capabilities that support work with businesses, public authorities and other stakeholders.

Bioparks can provide a favourable setting for connecting resources, activities and infrastructure. Their potential, however, also depends on people who can spot opportunities and turn them into collaborative projects. Developing these professionals’ skills is one of the conditions for industrial symbiosis to create new value chains and strengthen local territories.

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As part of Erasmus Days 2026, the INSET project invites you to its final online webinar:

Shaping the Future of Industrial Symbiosis: The INSET Observatory and Policy Brief

16 October 2026
10:00–11:30 CET
Online webinar
Registration Link

How can knowledge and evidence be transformed into effective action for Industrial Symbiosis?

Industrial Symbiosis can help companies improve resource efficiency, reduce waste and emissions, create new business opportunities and advance towards more circular and sustainable production models. However, its wider implementation requires accessible knowledge, appropriate skills, effective cooperation and supportive policy frameworks.

This final webinar will present two of the INSET project’s main results:

The INSET Industrial Symbiosis Observatory, a practical resource providing access to relevant knowledge, initiatives, tools, training opportunities and developments in the field of Industrial Symbiosis.

The INSET Policy Brief, which brings together the project’s main findings and recommendations to support the wider uptake of Industrial Symbiosis through policy, education, training and stakeholder cooperation.

The event will also offer an opportunity to reflect on the main challenges and enabling conditions for Industrial Symbiosis, discuss the role of vocational education and training, and explore how the project’s results can continue to generate impact beyond the end of INSET.

The webinar is aimed at policymakers, public authorities, companies, business associations, education and training providers, researchers, sustainability professionals and other stakeholders interested in Industrial Symbiosis, the circular economy and the green transition.

Participation is free, but prior registration is required.

Save the date, register and join the discussion on the future of Industrial Symbiosis!

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Organised by the Horizon Europe project RISERS – Roadmap for Industrial Symbiosis Standardisation for Efficient Resource Sharing, the conference titled “How Europe Can Drive Cross-Sector Resource Efficiency: Upscaling Industrial Symbiosis through Standardisation” will bring together representatives from industry, research, policymaking and standardisation bodies such as CEN and CENELEC.The programme includes keynotes and three thematic panels on policy and regulation, research-to-standard translation, and the practical business case for scaling IS across sectors.

This event is directly aligned with INSET’s mission, to enhance the replicability of IS initiatives, supported by:

• training programs with free access, for improving management and designin
• IS best practice collection 
• Online Observatory on IS  Home – IS Observatory

The RISERS roadmap addresses the same barriers INSET’s Observatory tracks, among all the lack of shared standards, fragmented data, and limited trust between potential symbiosis partners, while its focus on translating research into usable tools echoes INSET’s own approach of turning knowledge into practical, VET-oriented training for planners, managers and facilitators of industrial symbiosis.

INSET partners and stakeholders following the Observatory and training pathways (Planner & Manager of IS) are encouraged to follow the conference, whose conclusions on standardisation could feed directly into future updates of INSET’s policy brief and training materials.

Participation is free of charge; registration is required via the RISERS project website.
3 November 2026 | Brussels & Online
risers-project.eu

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In the province of Latina, a family of companies is showing how industrial symbiosis can turn an environmental liability into a strategic resource. The ILSAP Group, comprising Roma Service, ILSAP Latina, ILSAP Lamezia Terme and Power Oil, has built an integrated regional chain that collects, transports, stores and transforms animal by-products and exhausted vegetable oils, converting them into refined oils, animal fat-derived electricity, biodiesel and glycerin.

ILSAP’s story is itself a case of adaptive innovation. Founded in 1986 to process animal by-products for the zootechnical feed market, the company was forced to reinvent its entire business model when the BSE crisis of 2000 closed that market to processed animal proteins. Rather than scaling down, ILSAP became one of Italy’s few authorised plants able to handle high-risk specified material, and redirected its output toward energy recovery turning a public-health constraint into the seed of a new circular economy.

Today the Latina plant processes up to 10 tonnes per hour of animal by-products, and its cogeneration unit converts 2,000 tonnes per year of animal fat into roughly 8,000 MWh of renewable electricity. At the Lamezia Terme site, twin refining and transesterification lines run continuously to produce around 200 tonnes of refined oil, 200 tonnes of biodiesel and 20 tonnes of glycerin every day, entirely from waste feedstocks — used cooking oils, animal fats and non-food vegetable oils, never from food crops.

This matters well beyond the balance sheet. By producing second-generation, EN 14214-compliant biodiesel from residues instead of virgin feedstock, ILSAP delivers a homegrown, renewable alternative to fossil diesel without competing with food production or agricultural land, precisely the kind of local energy resilience that regions seek as they reduce dependence on imported petroleum. Power Oil’s collection network alone serves 8,000 clients across Italy, working with municipal utilities to keep used cooking oil out of the environment and into the supply chain.

With 85 employees across Rome, Latina and Lamezia Terme, and infrastructure recognised as a strategic national asset under Italian law (L. 35/2012), ILSAP is a concrete example of how connecting waste streams across sectors – food processing, catering, and municipal collection- can build regional energy capacity while reducing environmental impact.

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