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<p>This study examines how circular economy (CE) has been incorporated into the scientific domain of agrifood research, development, and innovation (RD&amp;I), focusing on the conceptual structure, thematic evolution, and dominant innovation orientations that characterize this interface. Although CE has become increasingly prominent in sustainability debates, its integration into agrifood RD&amp;I remains fragmented and uneven, particularly regarding the articulation between circularity principles, technological innovation, and regenerative systemic transformation. To address this gap, a structured bibliometric analysis was conducted using data retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection, Scopus, CAB Abstracts, Dimensions, and FAO AGRIS databases. The final corpus comprised 1,456 journal articles published between 2023 and March 2026. Performance analysis and science mapping techniques were applied through the Bibliometrix package in R to examine keyword co-occurrence, thematic evolution, conceptual clustering, and collaboration patterns. The results show that the field is expanding rapidly but without a corresponding stabilization of its conceptual core. Circular economy operates as a broad integrative framework linking sustainability, waste management, biomass valorization, and life cycle assessment, while emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and blockchain remain structurally secondary. This indicates that, despite their growing prominence in policy and strategic discourse, digital agriculture-related technologies have not yet become a central research front in circular economy-oriented agrifood RD&amp;I, remaining substantially peripheral to the dominant scientific structure of the field. Biomass-related pathways and efficiency-oriented approaches dominate the current architecture of the literature, whereas broader regenerative and system-level transition perspectives remain comparatively underdeveloped. The findings indicate that CE has been incorporated into agrifood RD&amp;I through a hybrid and asymmetric process in which sustainability framing, resource recovery, and technology-oriented innovation coexist without full conceptual integration. These results provide an empirical basis for advancing more coherent circular and regenerative agrifood RD&amp;I agendas and for strengthening the integration between technological innovation, system-level transformation, and circularity principles.</p>

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Circular Economy in Agrifood RD&I: A Global Bibliometric Review

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

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  • 发表日期：

    2026年7月29日

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  • Marcos Antonio Gomes Pena Jr.,
  • Sérgio Saraiva Nazareno dos Anjos,
  • Fabrício Oliveira Leitão

摘要

This study examines how circular economy (CE) has been incorporated into the scientific domain of agrifood research, development, and innovation (RD&I), focusing on the conceptual structure, thematic evolution, and dominant innovation orientations that characterize this interface. Although CE has become increasingly prominent in sustainability debates, its integration into agrifood RD&I remains fragmented and uneven, particularly regarding the articulation between circularity principles, technological innovation, and regenerative systemic transformation. To address this gap, a structured bibliometric analysis was conducted using data retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection, Scopus, CAB Abstracts, Dimensions, and FAO AGRIS databases. The final corpus comprised 1,456 journal articles published between 2023 and March 2026. Performance analysis and science mapping techniques were applied through the Bibliometrix package in R to examine keyword co-occurrence, thematic evolution, conceptual clustering, and collaboration patterns. The results show that the field is expanding rapidly but without a corresponding stabilization of its conceptual core. Circular economy operates as a broad integrative framework linking sustainability, waste management, biomass valorization, and life cycle assessment, while emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and blockchain remain structurally secondary. This indicates that, despite their growing prominence in policy and strategic discourse, digital agriculture-related technologies have not yet become a central research front in circular economy-oriented agrifood RD&I, remaining substantially peripheral to the dominant scientific structure of the field. Biomass-related pathways and efficiency-oriented approaches dominate the current architecture of the literature, whereas broader regenerative and system-level transition perspectives remain comparatively underdeveloped. The findings indicate that CE has been incorporated into agrifood RD&I through a hybrid and asymmetric process in which sustainability framing, resource recovery, and technology-oriented innovation coexist without full conceptual integration. These results provide an empirical basis for advancing more coherent circular and regenerative agrifood RD&I agendas and for strengthening the integration between technological innovation, system-level transformation, and circularity principles.