In Horizon Europe, excellent research is no longer enough on its own.
Increasingly, European calls emphasise concepts such as synergies, stakeholder ecosystems, knowledge exchange, clustering activities, and collaboration between funded projects. Across the 2026–2027 Horizon Europe Work Programmes, the European Commission repeatedly highlights the importance of networking, joint workshops, shared communication activities, and cooperation between projects funded under the same or complementary topics.
This reflects a broader shift in how impact is understood.
The EU is not only funding individual innovations. It is investing in ecosystems that can accelerate adoption, reduce duplication, strengthen policy alignment, and ensure that research outcomes reach industry and society faster.
In practice, this means that projects are increasingly expected to work beyond their own consortium boundaries. And this is where strategic clustering becomes essential.
At Future Needs, we see clustering as a strategic mechanism for building stronger innovation ecosystems around shared European priorities.
The cluster brings together projects and industry stakeholders working towards a common challenge: advancing circularity and sustainability in the construction sector.
The timing could not be more relevant.
The construction sector contributes around 9% of the EU’s GDP and provides millions of jobs across Europe, while simultaneously generating more than one-third of all waste in the European Union. Supporting the sector’s twin transition, digital and green, requires more than technological innovation alone.
It requires coordinated ecosystems.
Training builds capacity, but collaboration builds momentum. Circular construction can only scale when skilled professionals, innovators, policymakers, and industry actors connect across borders and share knowledge.
That is exactly the role the Circular Construction Cluster was designed to play.
The cluster creates opportunities for collaboration through joint industry events, webinars, training activities, and facilitated discussions around common sector challenges.
The cluster also demonstrates the growing value of connecting projects funded under similar Horizon Europe priorities and calls.
“Too often, projects with complementary expertise operate in parallel despite addressing overlapping challenges, stakeholder groups, or technological gaps. Strategic clustering helps bridge that fragmentation by creating structured opportunities for cooperation, visibility, and long-term knowledge exchange.” Egle Joneliunaite, Communication & Dissemination Manager at Future Needs, leading the Circular Construction Cluster initiative within the RECONMATIC project.
Building a collaborative ecosystem requires more than simply connecting organisations under one network. It requires ongoing dialogue, shared learning, and spaces where people can exchange experiences openly. Through the Circular Construction Cluster, Future Needs has facilitated activities that strengthen collaboration between projects, industry, and wider stakeholder communities working towards a more circular construction sector.
Future Needs organised the Clustering Event to bring together experts and stakeholders from construction, IT, automation, business, and communication disciplines around Europe’s Twin Transition priorities in construction. Representatives from other EU initiatives, including Beeyonders, CircularB COST Action, Reincarnate, RobetArme, REDOL, and Valrec, joined RECONMATIC partners to explore synergies, collaboration opportunities, and shared challenges around implementing circularity across the construction lifecycle.
To support knowledge exchange across the ecosystem, Future Needs facilitated the webinar “The Role of a Shared Glossary in Advancing Circular Construction,” bringing together two cluster projects and five experts from different disciplines. The discussion highlighted how differences in terminology across sectors and countries can create barriers to collaboration, while reinforcing the importance of building a shared understanding around circular construction.
Through the cluster, Future Needs supported collaboration activities aimed at strengthening circular-economy discussions beyond Western Europe. This included participation in the Western Balkans webinar on Closing the Value Gap in Construction, as well as coordinating joint activities between cluster members, including the co-organisation of an EU Green Week ’25 Partner Event.
Cluster member meetings facilitated by Future Needs have created space for networking, collaboration, and strategic discussions between participating organisations.
Such initiatives create trust between stakeholders. They improve knowledge transfer and help projects position their outcomes within wider European ecosystems.
They also contribute to stronger long-term exploitation and impact pathways beyond the duration of individual projects.
In many ways, clusters are becoming strategic assets. Not only because they increase visibility, but because they create the foundations for future collaboration, stronger proposal ecosystems, and more connected innovation communities capable of responding to increasingly interdisciplinary Horizon Europe priorities.
At Future Needs, we believe that successful clustering requires more than coordination.
It requires facilitation, strategic communication, ecosystem thinking, and the ability to bring diverse stakeholders into meaningful conversations around shared challenges.
Because ultimately, circular construction is not only about transforming materials, technologies, or processes. It is about building the collaborative ecosystems capable of transforming the sector itself.
If your Horizon Europe proposal requires clustering activities, stakeholder engagement, cross-project synergies, or ecosystem-building actions, Future Needs can support your consortium either as a project partner or through specialised subcontracted services designed to strengthen collaboration, visibility, and long-term project impact.
Let’s talk – proposals@futureneeds.eu
