Congratulations to Sanja Arsova, who had her viva on Thursday, 14 December and was awarded the PhD subject to minor revisions. Congratulations also to Sanja’s supervisors, Prof Panayiotis H. Ketikidis and Prof Andrea Genovese, for their great work and support.
Sanja's thesis investigated the formulation and implementation of Circular Economy (CE) policies within European NUTS 2 regions. A four-stage Policy Delphi study was designed and conducted with policy experts in regional administrations, regional governments but also higher-level policy experts from EU institutions. A very rich set of findings emerged, providing timely and important policy implications, while simultaneously contributing to theory advancement. The Smart Specialisation Strategy (S3) and CE policy nexus appeared to be less deterministic, with several risks of regional lock-ins and negative path dependency situations being identified. The institutional environment and related pressures, along with the effective multi-level governance mechanisms proved as conducive for the development and realisation of the regional CE initiatives. Lastly, the risk of amplifying the existing regional divergence gap is underlined, thereby creating a two-speed Europe.
