2023 CPNL grant open for applications: Innovation boost of €47.2 million for circular plastics

Investment grant for entrepreneurs and researchers for circular high-performance recycling, which reprocesses plastic waste into products, materials or substances.
The Circular Plastics NL scheme for 2023 now offers broad support for circular investments. Entrepreneurs and researchers with ideas for projects that solve bottlenecks in the plastics chain in the Netherlands can apply starting today. This grant scheme with generic 3 research projects and 9 showcases has been launched for CPNL through a tender via Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland (RVO) for innovative projects for the following topics:
Chain partners
CPNL opens opportunities for companies that want to invest in a research project or showcase in which you work with supply chain partners to solve bottlenecks to recycle plastic. Valuable waste streams should be reused and with the right collaborations the chain can be closed.
There are opportunities within the various topics for:
- entrepreneurs such as:
- Waste collectors: parties collecting post-consumer or industrial plastic waste;
- waste processors: parties that sort, wash or otherwise treat plastic waste streams;
- recyclers: parties that process sorted plastic waste into raw material for new plastics through mechanical, physical or chemical processes;
- polymer producers: parties that produce polymer materials;
- converters: parties that process polymer materials into plastic semi-finished and finished products;
- Engineers: parties who design and install industrial process equipment and installations;
- Brand owners: parties who establish functional requirements of a plastic product for a brand;
- chain directors: parties who collaboratively direct projects in a desired new value chain;
- knowledge or research institutes: research organizations or other organizations whose main activities are research and development in the field of plastics or their recycling.
For each topic, only the best rated project will receive a grant. How much grant you receive depends on the type of activities you perform in your project and the type of organization you are.
More information and requests
Want more information about this scheme can be found on the website of RVO. In the RVO - Manual grant Circular Plastics NL. you will find all the necessary information for preparing an application. It contains detailed explanations of the types of projects and activities, topics, conditions and criteria, project costs, attachments, weighting factors and method of assessment. Would you like to take advantage of these the opportunities? You can submit an application from October 12, 2023 hours until January 11, 2024, 17:00 hours via RVO: Circular Plastics NL (CPNL) subsidy (rvo.nl)
Help from CPNL and direct networking through B2match
CPNL Foundation is independent and supports researchers and companies that help make the plastics chain more circular. Therefore, a networking environment has been opened on B2match. You can view profiles of other participants and you can make 1 on 1 appointments with other potential consortium participants. You can explore this Circular Plastics NL B2Match website and search for other parties who want to and can think along with you about solutions from the complex interaction between the various value chains. Both interested parties with concrete ideas, and interested parties who are still exploring how and whether they can contribute with their expertise, are cordially invited to participate. The purpose of this online network is matchmaking to encourage consortium formation by connecting parties. You can ask questions to the CPNL program managers, pitch your ideas to other experts and expand your network.
About Circular Plastics NL Foundation
Circular Plastics NL (CPNL) is an initiative within the National Growth Fund. The goal is to make plastics fully circular and use subsidies to accelerate the transition. The program started in 2023, runs for eight years and has eight program lines. The program lines focus on bottlenecks in different value chains to close the cycles for existing plastics. In 2023, two open calls (grant schemes) allow investments in the transition to a circular economy:
- A RVO-tender for grants intended for companies and/or knowledge institutions. This tender will include generic research projects (3) and showcases (9) and will be issued by the Netherlands Entrepreneurship Agency (RVO).
- A grant application through an NWO call for proposals from universities, colleges and TO2 institutions. This grant application for research in CPNL's incubator program has a budget of 6 million euros. It is called "Making plastics circular: technical innovations" and will be issued by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO).