AI-assisted circular transition support for urban SMEs

We are exploring a project for DUT Call 2026, Circular Urban Economies Topic 3: Rethinking urban production for circular and resilient cities.

The central question is:

How can cities systematically help local companies identify and implement circular production opportunities, while using insights from individual companies to improve urban policy, infrastructure and collaboration?

Our current concept combines three layers:

1. Company-level interventions
Work directly with local companies through structured circular-economy innovation processes. These could include facilitated strategy sprints around material flows, circular business models, value-chain collaboration, barriers and concrete implementation experiments.

2. AI-assisted decision support
SILA would further develop and test AI-assisted tools that help translate research, company data and circular-economy knowledge into company-specific questions, options and action pathways. The goal is not to automate strategic judgement, but to make complex knowledge more accessible and actionable within real decision-making processes.

3. City and ecosystem intelligence
By working across multiple companies, the project can identify recurring barriers and opportunities: shared material flows, infrastructure needs, regulatory challenges, potential industrial symbiosis, procurement opportunities or collaboration between local businesses. These insights can then feed back into city policy, research and future interventions.

We are currently exploring a Belgian pilot environment around Mechelen, potentially bringing together a city, applied research partner, companies and a living-lab environment. This is still at an early stage and should be developed together with consortium partners.

For the transnational consortium, we are particularly interested in connecting with:

• cities or urban regions willing to act as pilot environments;

• universities and applied research organisations working on circular economy, urban production, transition studies or business innovation;

• SME and industry networks that can involve local companies;

• partners working on industrial symbiosis, material flows or circular value chains;

• complementary technology or implementation partners.

Ideally, the project would test comparable interventions in several European cities, allowing us to study both what can be replicated across contexts and what needs to remain locally specific.

SILA can contribute expertise in circular business model innovation, strategic design, workshop and intervention design, AI-assisted decision support and real-world implementation with companies.