Abstract
The circular economy (CE) framework has captured the attention of industry and academia and received
strong policy support. It is currently deemed as a powerful solution for sustainability, despite ongoing
criticism on its oversimplification and lack of consideration of socio-ethical issues. In parallel, the concept
of RRI has emerged strongly with a strong focus on the integration of social desirability in innovation
under transparency, democracy and mutual responsiveness principles. In this paper, we critically
examine the literature on the CE and RRI in order to find out how the different focus of RRI may provide
an innovation governance framework to strengthen the CE framework. There are two main ways in
which RRI could further the CE: first, anticipating unexpected consequences, helping to break disciplinary barriers and acknowledging systemic limits that are not currently taken into consideration; and
second, the integration of socio-ethical issues in the CE, and addressing the social implications of the CE
through stakeholder participation. However, future research should look at remaining blind spots of CE
and RRI, such as non-technological innovation, the demand-side of innovation and the development of
business models. With that objective, we suggest a research agenda for common development of the
frameworks.