Circular digibuild project closed in Pécs with a roadmap for clean, digital construction

Two-day high-level final policy conference united partners and stakeholders from 13 countries to turn three years of research, pilots and policy work into a lasting transnational strategy for circular, digitally enabled building

PÉCS, HUNGARY — More than 50 policymakers, researchers, industry leaders and circular-economy specialists gathered at the Pécs Commercial Center on 17–18 June 2026 for the High-Level Final Policy Event of Circular DigiBuild, the closing conference of the Interreg Danube Region Programme project (DRP0200309). Hosted with hybrid participation, the two-day conference set out to consolidate the project's results and chart how emerging technologies and circular-economy practices can sustainably drive the twin green-and-digital transition of the construction and buildings sector across the Danube region.

Opening the conference, project coordinator Silvia Stumpf of lead partner Business Agency Association (BAA) Bulgaria framed the event as both a closure and a launchpad — marking the end of the project's funded lifetime and the beginning of a durable, cross-border push for greener building policies.

Cooperation, Knowledge and Change

The first day traced the project's three pillars — cooperation, knowledge and change. Kaloyan Rachev of Vangavis (Bulgaria) presented the achievements and follow-up ambitions of the DANUBE CiDiCon cluster, the partnership built to keep boosting circularity in construction and to improve related policies beyond the project's end. Loredana Rhazzali of IRCEM (Romania) gave an overview of the project's research outputs, positioning the body of knowledge on circular-economy-driven emerging technologies as the foundation for lasting change.

Mario Vašak of ICENT (Croatia) and Emiliyan Enev of ReCheck (Bulgaria) then showcased how the project changed framework conditions on the ground, presenting the innovations piloted across the Danube region to foster the sustainable uptake of new technologies in construction.

Good Practices from Across the Region

An afternoon session spotlighted concrete good practices from industry and academia, with contributions from Holcim Hungary (Tamás Hoffmann), the University of Pécs (Miklós Halada) and Terrán (Árpád Jankó), alongside a good-practice example from Slovakia presented by Zuzana Špuntová. The day closed with networking and a conference dinner at the Granary Visitor Information Centre in Pécs.

From Pilots to Policy

Day two workshop on policy improvement, opened by Krisztina Pohli of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Pécs-Baranya (CCIPB), turned firmly toward policy. Cristin Cistelecan of WEST RDA (Romania) presented the project's headline policy outputs: a Danube Transnational Strategy on digitalisation-led circular-economy innovations in construction, together with Transnational Action Plans developed in all 13 partner countries. Partners presented shortly their plans and discussed them.

A temathic workshop has been held,    .  All partners presented the final agreed policy improvements, their inputs to the Better Policies Annexe and discusses how these improvements connect to the 2030 Danube Region Digital Innovation Strategy for Circular Construction.

Silvia Stumpf wrapped up with a forward look at better policies for triggering circular-economy benefits in Danube construction, setting out the project's impact and the consortium's ambitions for carrying that work forward. In her closing remarks, she underlined that the strategy and action plans give national and regional authorities a ready-made blueprint to scale up circular, digital construction.

“Circular DigiBuild has shown that the Danube region can move from fragmented pilots to a shared, transnational policy framework. We are closing the project with something rare — a strategy and 13 national action plans that turn circular, digital construction from ambition into a practical agenda. The task now is implementation.”