Greece combines a strong service-based economy with important activity in sectors directly linked to the circular economy transition, including tourism, shipping, construction, agri-food, energy, water management and public infrastructure. These sectors create opportunities for waste prevention, resource efficiency, material recovery, sustainable procurement and circular solutions that can be applied across different territorial and economic contexts.
According to the Regional Innovation Scoreboard 2025, Greece is classified as a Moderate Innovator, with innovation performance increasing across all 13 Greek regions since 2018. The country’s strongest performing regions are Attiki and Crete, both recognised as Moderate Innovators. Attiki benefits from a dense concentration of universities, research organisations and innovation actors, while Crete is supported by well-established research institutes. Greece also performs strongly in SME innovation, particularly in product and business process innovation and in the commercialisation of new-to-market and new-to-firm innovations.
Greece is advancing its transition to a circular economy through the New Action Plan for the Circular Economy, coordinated by the Ministry of Environment and Energy and aligned with the European Green Deal. The strategy focuses on sustainable production and consumption, waste prevention and valorisation, governance actions and priority value chains, including electronics and ICT, batteries, packaging, plastics, textiles, construction and buildings, and food and water. Greece has also set a national target to reduce food waste by 30% by 2030 compared with 2022 levels and is developing instruments such as Pay-As-You-Throw schemes and incentives for durable and repairable products.
Within RIVCircular, Greece is represented by Green Fund, a national public funding institution supervised by the Ministry of Environment and Energy. As Green Fund operates at national level, Greece’s participation is also national, enabling the engagement of stakeholders from across the country. Green Fund supports environmental protection and Greek environmental and climate policy by funding programmes that aim to protect, restore and enhance the natural and urban environment. Within the project, it contributes expertise in circular economy, innovation support, Green Public Procurement, stakeholder engagement and capacity building.
Learn more about the stakeholders from Greece participating in the RIVCircular Matchmaking Platform to build consortia and apply for the RIVCircular Open Call.