Label4Future

Welcome to Label4Future

Label4Future is an EU-funded initiative under the Interregional Innovation Investments Instrument (I3) programme. The project accelerated the transition toward a circular economy in less developed EU regions by fostering interregional collaboration, innovation capacity, and sustainable business transformation.

Label4Future primarily addressed the plastic sector and related industries, strengthening interregional cooperation and contributing to the development of resilient innovation ecosystems in less developed EU regions.

Mission & Impact

The project supported SMEs in developing innovative solutions, redesigning products and services, and preparing them for investor engagement, while strengthening cooperation with research institutions and policymakers.

Label4Future helped stakeholders identify and prioritise innovation opportunities, anticipate future challenges, and adopt circular economy models in practice.

Key Innovation Element

A distinctive feature of Label4Future was its creative-industry-driven approach. The project connected new media artists and designers with SMEs to co-create innovative business models and explore circular value chains.

This collaboration bridged artistic vision and industrial innovation, resulting in novel, sustainability-oriented solutions for business transformation.

Key Activities Delivered

Open Call: Engaged plastic industry stakeholders from less developed EU regions to submit innovation projects.
Future Scenarios Development: Developed alternative scenarios and involved stakeholders in circularity-focused foresight activities.
Residencies: Matched creative professionals with SMEs to explore circular value chains and sustainable business models.
Innovation Labs: Delivered intensive workshops in Prague, Vienna, and Ljubljana, bringing together SMEs, creative professionals, designers, and new media artists.
Comprehensive Support: Provided workshops, living labs, mentoring, and design support to advance products and services toward the EU market.

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Legacy

At the heart of the legacy is the Label4Future artist–SME collaboration setup. By pairing creative professionals with small and medium-sized enterprises, the project created safe, experimental spaces where industrial challenges could be reframed, future scenarios explored, and circular value chains co-designed.

Artist–SME Collaboration Methodology

This methodology helped SMEs move beyond incremental improvements, while enabling artists to engage meaningfully with real-world production, materials, and market constraints. The result was mutual learning, trust-building across disciplines, and concrete innovation outcomes grounded in sustainability.

The project demonstrated that structured, well-facilitated collaboration between artists, designers, and SMEs can become a powerful driver of circular and sustainable transformation — as a repeatable and transferable approach.

Key Output: Innovation Cook Book

A key output capturing this experience is the Innovation Cook Book. Rather than focusing on abstract theory, this practical guide manual translates real experiences from six SME–artist collaborations into clear, step-by-step “recipes” for creative collaboration.

It shows how creativity can be systematically integrated into industrial innovation processes to support circular and sustainable change. The Innovation Cook Book explains how to frame innovation challenges, select and match the right partners, prototype and test ideas, address ownership and value creation, and turn creative exploration into tangible results.

Who It Is Designed For

The Innovation Cook Book is designed for SMEs seeking sustainable innovation pathways, creative professionals working with industry, and policymakers aiming to embed creativity into regional and interregional innovation strategies.

Repository & Long-Term Accessibility

To ensure transparency and long-term accessibility, all project milestones, articles, methodological insights, and collaboration outcomes are available in the Repository section of the Label4Future website. Together, these resources form a knowledge base that extends the impact of the project beyond its lifetime and supports future creative–industrial collaborations across Europe.

Innovation Cook Book

The Innovation Cook Book is a practical guide developed within the Label4Future project that shows how creative collaboration can drive circular and sustainable innovation in industry. Rather than presenting theory, it translates real experiences from six SME–artist collaborations into clear, step-by-step “recipes” that help companies, creatives, and policymakers work together more effectively.

Built on hands-on experimentation in sectors such as plastics and materials, the Cook Book explains how to frame challenges, match the right partners, prototype ideas, handle ownership and value creation, and turn creative exploration into tangible results. Alongside tools, checklists, and reflections, it also highlights what worked, what failed, and what was learned in real-world conditions.

The Innovation Cook Book is designed for SMEs looking to innovate sustainably, creative professionals working with industry, and policymakers aiming to embed creativity into regional innovation strategies. It is both a guide and an invitation: to adapt these methods, apply them in new contexts, and use creative collaboration as a repeatable pathway toward systemic, circular change.

Innovation Process

Eco Blue x Studio Flint

Can office chairs tell a new story about sustainability? That’s the question driving the collaboration between Romanian SME Eco Blue and Dutch designer Govert Flint (Studio Flint). What began as a clash between business pragmatism and artistic utopia is evolving into a dialogue about circular design – exploring how modular seating can balance cost, durability, and visionary ideas. Their journey shows that innovation often starts not with answers, but with open conversation and bold imagination.

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Gumarstvo Šrajner x David Rickard

What happens when a Slovenian elastomer manufacturer teams up with a London-based artist? Through Label4Future, Gumarstvo Šrajner and David Rickard are reimagining everyday objects—like a pot lid—by blending industrial precision with artistic inquiry. Their collaboration explores how creativity, sustainability, and design can come together to inspire meaningful innovation in Europe's manufacturing landscape.

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AddiFlex x NMASA

AddiFlex and NMASA Design are teaming up to revolutionize sports protection through circular design. Supported by Label4Future, this cross-border collaboration bridges Slovenian industrial innovation with Swedish design expertise. Together, they are developing ultralight, 3D-printed protective gear that’s breathable, customizable, and waste-reducing—offering a fresh take on how regional cooperation can drive sustainable transformation in the plastics and sports sectors.

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ReEarth GastroPack x Carolin Liebl & Nikolas Schmid-Pfähler x Javier Masa

ReEarth GastroPack's collaboration with artists Carolin Liebl, Nikolas Schmid-Pfähler, and Javier Masa is setting a new benchmark for sustainable innovation. Through Label4Future, the partnership has gone far beyond aesthetics—transforming biodegradability testing into visual knowledge systems and reimagining the entire food delivery experience with modular and premium packaging concepts. Together, they’re showing how artistic research can unlock systemic change in packaging and elevate sustainability into a desirable consumer experience.

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DIAWIN x Anka Letycja Walicka

What happens when medical technology meets circular design? Through Label4Future, DIAWIN and artist Anka Letycja Walicka are reshaping diabetic care with a shared vision for sustainability. By uniting data-driven insole manufacturing with biodegradable materials and creative insight, they’ve developed a waste-free, patient-centered production model. Their partnership demonstrates how cross-sector collaboration can deliver smarter, greener solutions for the future of healthcare.

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Novavita Design x Mad Plastic Labs

Through Label4Future, Novavita Design and Mad Plastic Labs explored how recycled plastics like LDPE and PS can be reimagined as high-value materials. Their experiments—from patterned rolling techniques to the “dough method”—unlocked new structural and aesthetic qualities, with a breakthrough in transforming discarded PS from old TVs into strong, design-ready sheets. This collaboration shows how circular innovation can combine technical recycling with creative design to push plastics beyond waste into sustainable, premium applications.

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Innovation Map

An exploration of opportunities for circular innovation

The Label4Future Innovation Map highlights key regions, stakeholders and cross-sector collaborations that are driving circular innovation in the plastics industry and beyond. Based on in-depth research, events and hands-on workshops from across the project's partner countries, the map visualises existing ecosystems, value chains and new opportunities. Bringing together insights from businesses, creatives, researchers and policy makers, it shows where innovation is happening, the challenges ahead and how different sectors can work together to shape a sustainable future. Click on the individual map points for information on the various stakeholders. This includes sustainable and innovative practices that already exist, challenges, as well as ideas and partnerships that are forming to find solutions.