Topic Description

Product production and delivery processes are seeing fundamental changes worldwide. E-commerce and the internet have revolutionized order and delivery – changes are still underway and will doubtless evolve further. Automation and new process techniques (such as additive manufacturing or 3D printing) are revolutionising the concept of the factory. New and inter-dependent value chains in process industries lead to new process pathways, achieving new levels of resource and cost-efficiency. Logistics chains are adapting to cater for these changes, but these are often ad-hoc developments.

Existing project funding contexts, such as the Factories of the Future and national programmes addressing the fourth industrial revolution, are implementing a research and innovation agenda along roadmaps oriented to integrating new technologies into manufacturing processes, increasing environmental friendliness. Similar strategic agendas exist for e-commerce and for process industries (SPIRE – sustainable process industries for resource efficiency).

However, little reflection has been applied to the way that these new forms of production and delivery will work together.

This action should draw up a roadmap for supply-chain integration, addressing in particular distributed and customised manufacturing, along with the associated logistics. New supply-chains will be increasingly global. While including the global view, this reflection should focus on identifying roles and pathways for Europe's industry in particular.

Proposals should consider Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) aspects, in particular:

• use established economic modelling tools to develop and assess industrial scenarios to 2030, and possibly beyond; and
• address the role of consumers and users as active participants in the innovation process.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU between EUR 0.6 and 1.2 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

No more than one action will be funded.

The project should deliver primarily answers to the following two questions:

• What scenarios can we expect for future supply-chains and in which timescales?

These scenarios should cover the major supply and production chains in industry today, for both discrete and process production.

• Which technologies need to be developed in addition to those identified in existing roadmaps?

It is not expected that full-scale technology roadmaps for all scenarios will be developed in the scope of this topic, but preliminary strategic research agendas would be an advantage.

Socio-economic science and humanities
Cross-cutting Key-Enabling Technologies (KETs)
Open Innovation