Circular Economy & the Digital Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Brighton&Hove

Help shape how Brighton’s digital and circular economy ecosystems can work together to create new local opportunities.
About this Event

Circular Economy and the Digital Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Brighton

A collaborative workshop organised by the University of Sussex, Circular Brighton & Hove and PlusX

There is wide recognition that a Circular Economy can strengthen local value chains, drive innovation, and create new business opportunities. Brighton & Hove City Council’s Circular Economy Routemap makes clear that achieving this will depend not only on individual initiatives, but on stronger coordination across academia, businesses, policymakers, and support organisations.

At present, however, many circular opportunities in the city are not being fully realised. Activity often remains fragmented, with limited visibility of opportunities, weak connections between actors, and barriers that prevent ideas from scaling. At the same time, Brighton’s digital sector, one of its key entrepreneurial strengths, has yet to play a significant role in the circular transition. This is a missed opportunity in the city. The digital sector has the potential to play a dual role:

• as an enabler, helping connect actors, improve coordination, and unlock circular activity across value chains
• and as a value chain in its own right, where circularity can lead to a shift on how digital devices, software, infrastructure, creative assets are created, (re)used, shared, repaired, and kept in circulation to generate new local value.

To explore this, we are organising a workshop focused on strengthening the circular economy entrepreneurial ecosystem in Brighton. The session will bring together businesses, intermediaries, and policymakers to identify where circular opportunities are currently not materialising, what barriers are preventing them, and how these could be addressed through practical interventions.

For participants, this offers the opportunity to:

· spot real opportunities for your organisation - who to collaborate with and what you could realistically develop

· make sense of where you fit in Brighton’s circular ecosystem and where unmet opportunities exist

· co-design an initiative that could directly shape future collaboration in the city

The workshop will deliver:

• a mapped view of how value currently flows (and where it breaks) in the digital circular ecosystem
• a prioritised set of key barriers that need addressing to unlock activity
• a clearly defined intervention concept (including its purpose, actors involved, and how it would work in practice)
• a set of concrete next steps for taking this forward, including potential roles, partnerships, and initial actions.

A full agenda will be shared with registered participants, outlining the structure and activities in more detail. For more information about the workshop and the underpinning research please contact Professor Mirela Xheneti ([email protected])

Date: Tuesday 7 July
Time: 2:00pm–5:00pm
Location: Plus X, Brighton

Food, drinks and informal networking will follow the workshop