How can European small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) anticipate disruptions in supply chains? Some of the answers emerged at INESC TEC, which hosted the mid-term review meeting of a European project exploring advanced models and technologies for Europe’s manufacturing industry.
The RISE-SME project meeting brought together 10 partners from five countries, who presented the main results achieved since the project began a year ago. According to INESC TEC researcher Gustavo Dalmarco, the “relevance of the results obtained” meets the “medium-term strategies and actions foreseen by the European Commission” – a point emphasised during the meeting.
During their visit to Porto, partners had the chance to tour the Industry and Innovation Laboratory (iiLab) at INESC TEC, one of the Institute’s key research infrastructures. In this space where industry and innovation converge, they saw first-hand the facilities where technologies underpinning the goals of RISE-SME are being developed. The model designed by INESC TEC researchers, in collaboration with partners from Italy, Spain and Germany, will serve as the foundation for the project’s continuance (running until the end of 2026).
The project’s goal? To create a methodology that identifies disruptions and technological opportunities, enabling SMEs to build supply chains that are more flexible, agile and resilient. To support SMEs in achieving operational independence, INESC TEC is mapping the main risks and critical dependencies that affect their ecosystems, using an innovative quantitative model.
According to INESC TEC researcher Ricardo Zimmermann, the supply chain resilience fit model helps identify the key capabilities companies in different sectors – including textiles, agro-food, mobility and digital – need to develop in order to “improve their ability to prepare for, address and transform in the face of the increasingly common disruptions that characterise today’s global supply chain models.”
RISE-SME also aims to foster alliances between traditional and tech-based SMEs within industrial ecosystems and to accelerate the adoption of advanced technologies in these companies. That is why, in Porto, INESC TEC’s contributions met other partners’ approaches, all working towards a solution to measure the impact of disruptions and to develop technological actions to overcome them.
Launched in January 2024 and scheduled to run until 2026, RISE-SME is funded under the Horizon Europe programme, with a total budget of more than €2M.
The researchers mentioned in this news piece are associated with INESC TEC
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