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Kick-off meeting on 23 January
The Community of Practice (CoP) #5 Smart Circular Cities (Team 1) held its kick-off meeting on 23 January. Ms Jacqueline Chang, CoP Manager, welcomed participants and outlined the main objectives of the session. Mr Oscar Prat van Thiel, Business and Academia Support Expert, provided a short briefing on how he could support the Community of Practice with business matchmaking opportunities throughout its UCAP activities, drawing on his expertise and international network.
CoP #5 focuses on wastewater, waste and sustainable development initiatives involving six pilot cities: Debrecen (Hungary), Sofia (Bulgaria) and Iskandar Malaysia (Malaysia), alongside a cluster of Indian cities — Jabalpur, Pimpri-Chinchwad (PCMC) and Cuttack. City representatives shared their challenges and experiences in implementing circular economy practices, with particular emphasis on water management, waste processing and urban database development.
The kick-off meeting deepened connections between partners and initiated knowledge exchanges on best practices, with a view to incorporating these into two proposed pilot project ideas. The approach adopted by the pilot cities centres on translating shared ideation into practical, high-impact pilot projects that can be readily replicated across EU and Asian cities during the IURC programme and beyond 2027.
The CoP Coordinator Ms. Dorottya Horváth, Urban Development Senior Expert from Debrecen, Hungary shared a best practices presentation on “Urban Blue-Green Belt and Treated reuse water for landscape use – Debrecen’s Experience ”. She focused on presenting their city’s water management challenges and circular economy initiatives. Dorottya highlighted the need for an integrated digital urban database, new financing models, and technological solutions to modernize wastewater treatment and drinking water networks. She discussed sharing circular wastewater technologies, best practices in urban wetlands, and lessons learned in business and citizen engagement. The conversation ended with a call for developing an integrated urban database and a handbook of adaptable circular solutions based on CoP members’ challenges and experiences.
Mrs. Kamisah Mohd Ghazali, Senior Vice President (Head), Sustainability & Community shared a best practices presentation on “Integrated Circular Economy Lab for Cities – Iskandar Malaysia’s international engagement”. She focused on Iskandar Malaysia’s Circular Economy initiatives, which has expanded to include the Johore Special Economy Zone with Singapore, covering 3,588 square kilometres and six flagships. She also presented on the challenges and opportunities in implementing circular economy practices, highlighting the need for better coordination between policy, pilots, and initiatives.
From 23 January until 13 February, the member cities in this Community of Practice were able to collaborate in open dialogues around mutual priorities and key urban and regional challenges. As of to date, the six pilot cities have documented their pilot projects as follows:
Pilot Project Idea 1: Development of a Decision-Support Integrated Urban Circular Water Knowledge Platform
Pilot Project Idea 2: Integrated Circular Economy Lab for Cities (Design, implementation and scaling of city-led circular economy delivery platforms)
The pilot cities are very close to completing their comprehensive Urban Cooperation Action Plan (U-CAP) and they plan to submit it on or before February 28th.
Second CoP Meeting on 16 February
The CoP Coordinator has made plans to use the second CoP meeting, to work on Advance Cooperation Missions (Study Visits). This is relevant for Section 7 of the UCAP involving European and Asian cities in this Community of Practice. The pilot cities also plan to finalise the U-CAP with a final round of consultations with member cities. The CoP Coordinator will also request for CoP member cities to agree and formalize the approval of the U-CAP prior to official submission on or before 28 February 2026.
We would like to thank the following city government officials in this CoP for their hard work and dedication since January 2026:
- Debrecen (CoP Coordinator)
- Ms. Dorottya Horváth, Urban Development Senior Expert
- Sofia
- Ms. Petya Dimitrova, Chief Expert, Digitization, Innovation and Investment Unit
- Ms. Sofiya Yovcheva , Junior Expert, Digitization, Innovation and Investment Unit
- Mr. Emil Georgiev, Director of Waste Management Directorate
- Ms. Adriana Lazarova, Chief Expert in Waste Management Directorate
- Iskandar Malaysia
- Mrs. Kamisah Mohd Ghazali, Senior Vice President (Head), Sustainability & Community
- Cuttack
- Mr. Trishul Mardi, Assistant Commissioner
- Mr. Mrinmoy Chattaraj, Consultant
- Jabalpur
- Mr. Vatsal Khandelwal, Environmental Engineer & Social Safeguards Nodal Officer
- Mr. Sambhav Ayachi, Assistant Commissioner
- Pimpri Chinchwad (PCMC)
- Mr. Sh. Sanjay Kulkarni, Chief Engineer
- Mr. Aditya Sharma, Project Director, Technical Support Unit, Sustainability Cell
- Ms. Anushkriti Singh, Technical Support Unit, Sustainability Cell
- Mr. Lalit Gehlot, Sr. Consultant -Environment, Technical Support Unit, Sustainability Cell
The EU-funded International Urban and Regional Cooperation for Asia-Australasia’s Circular Economy Cluster currently has five (5) Communities of Practice (CoP) consisting of 24 cities from 11 countries/territories.
For more information you can email the Cluster | CoP Manager jchang@iurc.eu and IURC Helpdesk Team helpdesk@iurc.eu
CoP #5 Team 1: Smart Circular Cities
EU: Debrecen, Sofia
AA: Iskandar Malaysia, Pimpri Chinchwad, Cuttack, Jabalpur
CoP #5 Team 2: Smart Circular Cities
EU: Madrid, Granada
AA: Beijing, Zhengzhou, Guangzhou
CoP #6: Circular Carbon Economy – Research & Innovation
EU: Trier, Bremen
AA: Chennai, Cuttack, Jabalpur
CoP #7: Food Policy & Circular Food Solutions
EU: Milan, Vicenza, Košice
AA: Seberang Perai, Melaka, Kuala Lumpur (observer), Zhengzhou
CoP #8: Circular Economy Urban Centres
EU: Bologna, Riga, Sofia
AA: New Taipei, Gangtok, Seberang Perai