CENTRUM KOOPERACJI RECYKLINGU - NOT FOR PROFIT SYSTEM SP ZOO

Their core work

Centrum Kooperacji Recyklingu is a Warsaw-based Polish non-profit that works at the intersection of SME support, industrial cluster development, and regional smart specialisation — helping small and medium enterprises build cross-border value chains and adopt advanced manufacturing practices. Their organisational name points to a recycling and circular economy founding mission, which surfaces in their project work through circular economy and resource efficiency themes. In practice, they function as a regional intermediary: joining European Innovation Actions to bring Polish SME cluster expertise into multi-country consortia working on industrial transitions, from raw materials and mining to offshore and blue economy sectors. They are not a technology developer; their value is in cluster facilitation, cross-sectoral network building, and connecting regional industrial actors to EU-level initiatives.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Both H2020 projects started within a year of each other (2020 and 2021), so the timeline is narrow and caution is warranted. That said, there is a visible pivot: the earlier MINE.THE.GAP project is grounded in terrestrial extractive industries — mining, raw materials, resource efficiency, circular economy, and RIS3 policy frameworks. The more recent GreenOffshoreTech broadens the scope significantly toward the blue economy, offshore industries, and environmental technologies, while retaining the cross-sectoral SME cluster approach as the constant thread. The trajectory suggests the organisation is deliberately extending from land-based industrial SME support into marine and coastal industrial sectors — a pattern consistent with Polish and Baltic-region smart specialisation ambitions.

They are moving from traditional extractive-sector SME support toward marine/coastal green industries, making them a relevant partner for consortia targeting offshore wind, blue bioeconomy, or maritime decarbonisation — provided SME cluster facilitation is needed.

How they like to work

This organisation has participated exclusively as a consortium member across both projects and has never held a coordinator role, which indicates they are a contributing partner rather than a project driver. With 22 unique partners across 11 countries from only 2 projects, they operate in sizeable, geographically distributed consortia — typical of cluster support networks rather than tightly knit research groups. This suggests they bring regional network access and policy linkage to a consortium rather than technical leadership.

Their two projects have connected them with 22 unique partners across 11 countries, a broad footprint for such a small organisation. The cross-border emphasis in both project titles suggests their network is deliberately European rather than Poland-focused.

What sets them apart

What distinguishes this organisation is the combination of a circular economy and recycling founding mandate with practical SME cluster facilitation work in sectors that are not obviously circular — raw materials, offshore industries, and advanced manufacturing. For a consortium needing a Polish SME network intermediary with experience in both industrial policy frameworks (RIS3, S3P) and emerging green sectors, they fill a niche that neither a pure research institute nor a standard business association would cover. Their non-profit structure may also make them attractive for projects requiring independent facilitation of cross-sector or cross-border SME dialogue.

Highlights from their portfolio

• GreenOffshoreTech
  The larger of the two projects (EUR 95,125) and the one that signals the clearest strategic evolution, combining blue economy, offshore industry 4.0, and environmental technologies in a cross-border SME support framework.
• MINE.THE.GAP
  Establishes the organisation's core identity as an SME cluster facilitator in industrial value chains, explicitly linking raw materials and mining with circular economy and regional smart specialisation policy.