WOJEWODZTWO LODZKIE

Their core work

Lodzkie Region is the regional government authority of one of Poland's largest voivodeships, representing around 2.5 million residents across a significant industrial and agricultural base. In EU research projects, they act as a territorial governance partner — providing the institutional mandate, policy instruments, and administrative capacity needed to pilot and scale circular economy transitions at regional level. Their value to consortia is not technical research but real-world implementation territory: they can pass regional strategies, coordinate public procurement, and engage local businesses and municipalities around circular and bio-based transitions. Both their H2020 projects focus on translating circular economy concepts into actionable regional governance models.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their first H2020 project (SCREEN, 2016-2018), Lodzkie participated in a coordination action focused on exchanging circular economy practices across European regions — a learning and networking phase with no project-specific governance vocabulary yet attached. By 2021, their entry into FRONTSH1P reflects a clear maturation: the emphasis shifted to deploying systemic solutions and building a circular governance model, suggesting the region moved from observer and peer-learner to active implementation partner with a defined methodology. The trajectory points toward Lodzkie embedding circular economy principles directly into regional administrative structures rather than simply studying or networking around them.

Lodzkie Region is shifting from a knowledge-exchange participant toward an active circular economy deployment territory, making them increasingly relevant for Innovation Actions and LIFE projects that need a real administrative region to anchor governance pilots and demonstrate territorial uptake.

How they like to work

Lodzkie Region has consistently joined as a participant rather than consortium leader, which is typical for regional government bodies that contribute implementation territory and political legitimacy rather than research capacity. Across just two projects, they engaged with 57 unique partners spanning 15 countries, indicating a preference for large, multi-national consortia where their regional governance mandate is one of several complementary assets. They are unlikely to initiate or lead a consortium but provide evaluators with the signal they often need most: that the project will achieve real territorial uptake and institutional buy-in, not just academic outputs.

Despite only two projects, Lodzkie has connected with 57 unique partners across 15 countries — a notably broad network reflecting the large, multi-stakeholder consortia common in circular economy coordination and innovation actions. Their network spans Central and Western Europe, consistent with the EU regional policy community.

What sets them apart

As a regional government rather than a university or research institute, Lodzkie brings something most consortium partners cannot: direct institutional authority over regional policy, land use, public procurement, and economic development strategy in a large Polish industrial region. For projects that need to demonstrate scalable governance impact — not just research outputs — a committed regional authority is often the missing piece that satisfies evaluators and ensures the project's results get absorbed into public policy. Lodzkie's track record in both a coordination action and a longer innovation action signals they understand EU project mechanics and can deliver on the governance dimension of circular economy transitions.

Highlights from their portfolio

• FRONTSH1P
  A long-running Innovation Action (2021-2025) deploying systemic circular economy solutions across frontrunner regions, where Lodzkie serves as one of the real-world implementation territories responsible for developing and testing a replicable circular governance model.
• SCREEN
  Lodzkie's H2020 debut through a Coordination and Support Action that built cross-regional circular economy collaboration networks — establishing the partnerships and institutional experience that enabled their later role in deployment-stage projects.