Applications Are Open: Circle Works Is Offering Up to ₱1.6 Million in Seed Funding for Youth-Led Circular Economy Startups in Cordillera. Here Is Everything You Need to Know.
Vivita Philippines and the University of Baguio launched the Circle Works Youth Circular Economy Incubation Program on April 13, 2026, backed by the EU-PH Green Economy Partnership. The 18-month programme is open to youth aged 16–35 across Cordillera, with funding available for up to 26 teams.
If you are between 16 and 35, live anywhere in Cordillera, and have an idea for reducing plastic waste, building a circular product, or redesigning how materials move through your community, there is now an EU-funded programme specifically designed to fund and build your startup. Circle Works, the Youth Circular Economy Incubation Program launched by Vivita Philippines in partnership with the University of Baguio on April 13, 2026, is accepting applications now.
The funding is real and specific: PHP 600,000 for up to 21 local teams, and PHP 1,000,000 each for the top five regional startups, bringing the total seed funding ceiling to PHP 1.6 million per qualifying applicant across both tracks. Applications are open at vivita.ph/circle-works.
What Circle Works Offers
Circle Works is an 18-month structured incubation and acceleration programme. It is not a one-day workshop or a pitch competition. It is a full development pathway that takes a young innovator from idea to funded, operational green venture, with four types of support throughout: training, mentorship, incubation, and seed funding.
The programme is built around the upstream Rs of circular economy: Refuse, Rethink, and Reduce. Those three principles are the design brief for every participant. The goal is not to manage plastic waste after it is generated. It is to build businesses that prevent it from being generated in the first place, by redesigning products, rethinking consumption models, and creating circular supply chains that generate economic value while eliminating waste at the source.
The April 13 community launch at UB's Centennial Hall gave participants a preview of what the 18-month journey looks like. A Circular Economy Learning Sprint showed how products and systems can be redesigned for minimal plastic use. A Repair Café demonstrated practical circular economy principles in action, repairing items rather than discarding them. An MOA was signed among the University of Baguio, the Baguio Business Club, and the Rotary Club of Baguio Summer Capital, formalizing cross-sector support for the programme's Cordillera cohort.
Who Can Apply
Circle Works is open to youth aged 16 to 35 across the entire Cordillera Administrative Region, covering Baguio City, Benguet, Kalinga, Apayao, Abra, Ifugao, and Mountain Province. The programme specifically welcomes students, aspiring entrepreneurs, grassroots innovators, community leaders, and women-led MSMEs.
You do not need a finished product or a registered business to apply. What you need is a genuine commitment to solving a plastic waste or circular economy problem, and the willingness to build something real over 18 months with mentorship and funding behind you.
The programme is implemented through Vivistop Baguio, Vivita Philippines' local innovation space, with the EU-PH Green Economy Partnership as the primary funder. That partnership, backed by a €60 million grant from the European Union running from 2023 to 2028, is one of the largest single green economy investments in Philippine history, and Circle Works is its direct channel into Cordillera's youth startup community.
Why This Matters for Baguio and Cordillera
Baguio City generates approximately 290 tons of waste daily during peak tourism periods, and plastic is among the most persistent components of that load. The city has already demonstrated that circular economy approaches work at the community level: a shift to circular economy practices reduced Baguio's daily trash volume by 50 metric tons in December 2024 alone, and the city's plastic-and-styro-free ordinance has already cut plastic waste by 30% since implementation. The demand for upstream solutions, products and systems that do not generate plastic in the first place, is the next frontier of that progress.
Circle Works is designed to produce the founders who build those solutions. Up to 26 funded teams from across Cordillera working on circular economy startups over 18 months is a meaningful injection of both capital and innovation capacity into the region's green economy pipeline. The Philippines is also one of five countries responsible for more than half of ocean plastic pollution globally, making circular economy innovation here a contribution to a problem that extends well beyond Baguio's city limits.
What This Means for Northern Luzon
A structured, 18-month, EU-funded incubation programme with up to ₱1.6 million in seed funding, open to any young person in Cordillera with a circular economy idea, is one of the most accessible startup pathways currently available in Northern Luzon. The deadline to apply is approaching. The application takes minutes to start. The opportunity to build a funded green venture with expert mentorship, institutional backing from UB, the Baguio Business Club, and the Rotary Club, and EU-level credibility behind your startup does not come around often.
If you are a student at BSU, UC, UB, or any HEI in Cordillera. If you are a young farmer or community leader in Apayao, Kalinga, Ifugao, or Mountain Province. If you run a women-led MSME and want to redesign your product or packaging for the circular economy. Apply now.
Visit vivita.ph/circle-works to apply.
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Market Context:
The EU-PH Green Economy Partnership provides €60 million, approximately PHP 3.67 billion, from 2023 to 2028, covering circular economy, plastic waste reduction, energy efficiency, and clean energy, making it one of the largest EU development investments in Philippine history. Circle Works provides PHP 600,000 each to up to 21 local teams and PHP 1,000,000 each to the top five regional startups, creating a total seed funding pool of up to PHP 17.6 million across all funded participants. Baguio City's circular economy initiatives have already reduced daily trash volume by 50 metric tons during the 2024 holiday season, and the city's plastic ordinance has cut plastic waste by 30% since implementation, demonstrating measurable demand for the upstream solutions Circle Works participants will be building. The Philippines ranks among the top five countries contributing to global ocean plastic pollution, creating national and international urgency for the circular economy innovations that this programme is designed to produce.
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