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Free Defra-funded evaluation support to help your circular economy initiative demonstrate impact and unlock funding
Circular Economy Pathfinders Evaluation Project 2026/2027
This article applies to anyone working on circular economy initiatives – England only
Defra is inviting established community level circular initiatives in England to apply to participate in the first year of the Circular Economy Pathfinders project.
Circular Economy (CE) Pathfinders is a new project designed to help circular initiatives—from local reuse hubs and repair cafes to larger local authority or regional programmes—better demonstrate the impact and value of their activities through bespoke Defra- funded monitoring and evaluation support. It will help initiatives collect robust evidence, improve understanding of social, economic and environmental impacts, and demonstrate value for money. A peer network will also be established for sharing knowledge and successful delivery approaches with funded evaluation support.
Insights generated will contribute to a national evidence base and evaluation toolkit, made available to all local CE initiatives across England to help them demonstrate value, improve delivery, and unlock funding. The evidence base and toolkit will:
- Showcase successful approaches and build a robust evidence base of ‘what works’
- Empower local CE initiatives to implement monitoring and evaluation processes, develop strong business cases, align with funding objectives, and evaluate impacts and value for money
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Is this opportunity right for you?
We're looking for 5–10 circular economy initiatives across England, including:
- All types of initiatives: repair cafes, libraries of things, second-hand outlets, industrial symbiosis networks, product-as-service models, and business support programmes
- Any size: from grassroots neighbourhood projects to larger local authority or regional programmes
- Diverse focus areas: consumption change, reuse, repair, recycling, remanufacturing, and sharing models
If your initiative is established and operating in England, we want to hear from you.
What support will be provided?
Each participating initiative will receive bespoke Defra-funded evaluation support between May 2026 and March 2027. To ensure support is tailored and appropriate, each initiative will be required to engage in regular discussions with evaluation experts and share information, data and insights. It is anticipated that initiatives will need to commit around 1–2 days per month.
Bespoke support may include:
- Ongoing contact with evaluation experts
- Bespoke tools demonstrating pathways to outcomes and impacts
- A monitoring and evaluation framework
- Support to implement and test processes, tools and templates for data collection, analysis and reporting
Insights will be used to showcase the work of participating initiatives and inform the national evidence base and toolkit to support design, delivery, monitoring and evaluation across local circular initiatives.
How to apply
Request the full prospectus and application form here
📅 An online briefing webinar will be held on Tuesday 3 March from 14:00 – 15:00.
Register for Webinar
Key dates
- Prospectus and application form available: 26 February 2026
- Application period opens: 26 February 2026
- Online briefing webinar: 3 March 2026
- Application deadline: 26 March 2026
- Applicants notified: 24 April 2026
- Project commences: 1 May 2026
Defra will take care to make the application process as straightforward as possible.
Please contact us if you have any queries and we will aim to respond promptly.
