International Partner Search

Research & Development Request

Horizon Europe - TWIN TRANSITION-01-07: A Pan-European consortium is looking for additional partners to engineer a Circular Manufacturing Ecosystem (CME) with assembly lines as subjects of the circular economy

Country of Origin: Germany
Reference Number: RDDE20211125001
Publication Date: 25 November 2021

Summary

A European consortium led by a Technical University in Southern Germany is applying for the Horizon Europe call TWIN-TRANSITION-01-07 Digital tools to support the engineering of a Circular Economy. The goal of this project is to engineer a CME with assembly lines as subjects of the circular economy. The consortium is looking for additional partners to strengthen its capabilities in regard to demonstration use cases and standardization. A research cooperation agreement is foreseen.

Description

With applying for the Horizon Europe call TWIN-TRANSITION-01-07 Digital tools to support the engineering of a Circular Economy, the Pan-European consortium has a clear challenge in mind which should be adressed:



Today’s assembly lines do not reach their maximal lifetime, which results in premature obsolescence and wasted resources. The main reasons for this state is assembly line under exploitation:



- Shorter product cycles dictate ever shorter usage of assembly lines

- Trend towards product customization requires frequent changes in assembly line set ups (resulting in certain production resources being put out of operation)

- Flexible manufacturing solutions are not yet able to address the under exploitation challenge



To overcome this challenge, the consortium aims to engineer a Circular Manufacturing Ecosystem (CME) with assembly lines as subjects of the circular economy. The idea is to combine different novel Industry 4.0 digital tools (like for example an Artificial Intellingence Matchmaking Engine, Industry 5.0 surveying tools or Marketplaces) in order to build this kind of ecosystem. 



The already existing Pan-European consortium is led by a Technical University in Southern Germany. The additional six partners are a further Technical University from Austria, larger companies as well as SMEs (from Germany, France and Austria) with expertise in pioneering technologies and services for sustainable and connected mobility, product and process topics, and digital solutions. The consortium is looking for additional partners to strengthen its capabilities in regard to demonstration use cases and standardization aspects. For this project, a research cooperation agreement is foreseen. 



The deadline for submitting proposals is 30 March 2022.



The deadline for EoIs is 31 January 2022.

Advantages and Innovations

The R&D project has innovation potential in several fields:



- CIRCULARITY: The project will be able to give production resources a second life by trading them in the marketplace, building customized second hand lines and identifying which resources can re-enter the circular economy and which should be recycled.



- RESILIENCE: The outcome of the project will increase the EU manufacturing sector’s resilience by decreasing its reliance on newbuilt assembly lines based on resources/components/virgin materials sourced globally. Focus on second hand production resources instead.



- HUMAN-CENTRISM: The project will ensure second hand lines by training and involving human operators in the process.

Stage Of Development

Project in negotiations - urgent

Requested partner

The Pan-European consortium is looking for additional partners to strengthen its capabilities in regard to demonstration use cases and standardization aspects within the project for the Horizon Europe call TWIN TRANSITION 01 07 Digital tools to support the engineering of a Circular Economy. Therefore two types of partners are sought:



- Use case partner: Industry partners interested in demonstrating the project´s innovation in real industrial environments (e.g. medical, electronics etc.).



- Standardisation partner: Standardization entities interested in accompanying the project to pave the way for future standards in areas of circular economy and manufacturing. 



The partnership considered is a research cooperation agreement.