The European Union is pursuing ambitious climate and circular economy goals. It aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions, expand renewable energy and build a more resource-efficient circular economy.

This transition will reshape Europe’s demand for raw materials. Some resources may be needed less, while demand for others is likely to rise. Many of these materials are imported from countries in the Global South, where economies often depend heavily on raw material exports.

Europe’s transition can therefore have significant effects beyond its borders − influencing trade flows, public revenues, economic structures, and environmental and social conditions in exporting countries.

Yet these international consequences are often overlooked, and the perspectives of governments, workers, communities, and other stakeholders in exporting countries are not sufficiently considered.

CIRCEUS helps close this gap by making these global impacts visible, better understood, and open to informed dialogue.

CIRCEUS is a transdisciplinary research project. This means that scientific analysis is combined with practical knowledge and stakeholder perspectives throughout the project.

CIRCEUS follows a three-step collaborative process

1. Joint Problem Framing: Identify key challenges, research priorities, and relevant perspectives together.
2. Co-Creating Knowledge: Combine scientific evidence, modelling approaches, and practical experience.
3. Integrating Results: Develop lessons, policy options, and pathways for action.

The project focuses on four key questions:

1. Raw Material Demand: How will different transition pathways change the EU’s need for raw materials and related emissions?
2. Global Supply Chains: How will imports, trade partners, and international supply structures shift?
3. Impacts on Exporting Countries: What social, economic, and environmental consequences may arise for resource-exporting countries?
4. Fair Partnerships: How can the EU and partner countries build more balanced, resilient, and mutually beneficial cooperation?

To answer these questions, CIRCEUS uses a range of quantitative and qualitative methods:

• Policy and governance analysis 
• Scenario modelling 
• Multi-regional input-output analysis (MRIO) 
• Material flow and stock-flow analysis 
• Case study research 

Stakeholder engagement is a core element of CIRCEUS and runs across all project phases. Through interviews, workshops and dialogue formats, CIRCEUS brings together perspectives from policy, civil society, business in the EU and resource-exporting countries in the Global South. This shall ensure that the research addresses real-world challenges, identifies relevant trade-offs, and develops practically useful results. A stakeholder sounding board provides ongoing critical feedback and helps ensure the relevance and legitimacy of our findings throughout the research process.

Research Institutions

• ÖFSE – Austrian Foundation for Development Research 
• WU Vienna – Vienna University of Economics and Business 
• BOKU University – University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna 
• ÖAW – Austrian Academy of Sciences (ITA) 

Civil Society Partners

• Dreikönigsaktion (DKA) Austria 
• GLOBAL 2000 / Friends of the Earth Austria 

Research Team

Bernhard Tröster, ÖFSE (Coordinating PI)
Karin Küblböck, ÖFSE
Simela Papatheophilou, ÖFSE
Stephan Lutter, WU, (PI)
Stefan Giljum
Fiona Strolz
Martin Cerny
Mahshid Sotoudeh, ÖAW (PI)
Anna Pauls, ÖAW
Saskia Favreuille, ÖAW
Willi Haas, BOKU (PI)
Nina Eisenmenger, BOKU
Felix Dorn, BOKU
Andre Sebastian Baumgart, BOKU
Doris Virág, BOKU
Tess Eugenie Posch, BOKU
Herbert Wassserbauer, DKA
Anna Leitner, Global 2000

Contact us: b.troester@oefse.at