The forest industry makes an important contribution to the bioeconomy, The "CirculAlps" project focused on expanding and diversifying this contribution and increasingly introducing the circular economy. For this purpose, the state agency worked together with four partners from Austria, Slovenia and Italy. The project, which started in January 2018, was funded by the "Alpine Region Preparatory Action Fund" (ARPAF) within the framework of the EU Strategy for the Alpine Region (EUSALP). The project lasted 2 years.

With the Alpine Space Strategy, the EU has developed a macro-regional strategy within which projects such as CirculAlps and AlpLinkBioEco are funded. The Alpine Space Strategy provides a framework, that can be supported by the European Structural and Investment Funds, among others, in order to tackle common challenges in a specific geographical area. The addressees of the strategy are the regions in the individual member states of the EU. Cooperation with third party countries, such as Switzerland and Liechtenstein, are expressly desired and thus strengthen cooperation in the Alpine region.

The goals of the Alpine Space Strategy are subordinate to several priorities:

1. Economic growth and innovation
2. Mobility and Connectivity
3. Environment and energy
4. Cross-sections in political areas: politics, contains possibilities of institutions

In order to support the EU strategy for the Alpine region, the European Parliament has made 2 million euros avaliable for preparatory measures (ARPAF). This funding should support the implementation of the strategy in the areas of environment and mobility. A total of 5 projects on the topics of demographic change, environmentally friendly mobility as well as bioeconomy and circular economy are funded. The latter two include the "CirculAlps" project.