European value chains for rail supply

Taking into account the lessons learnt on the COVID-19 lockdowns, which resulted in general availabilities constraints of raw materials, electronic components and other supplies arriving from oversee, the Project stemming from this topic is expected to contribute fostering a resilient rail supply chain for the implementation of the future needed rail innovations, as described in the Europe’s Rail Multi-Annual Work Programme.

More specifically in the scope of rail innovations to:

• increasing access to supply chain information and possibilities within Europe;
• increasing resilience of the EU rail products in the global supply chain, considering as well the effect of climate changes;
• provision of confidence, in particular for SMEs, on the supply needs (material, components, etc.) for future rail innovations and their availabilities;
• foster global competitiveness of EU companies.

The Project stemming from this topic is expected to provide all the following:

• Lessons learnt of the impact to the rail supply of technology and innovation on the global value chain and production due the COVID-19 lockdowns, as well as impact of climate change, which resulted in availabilities constraints of raw materials, electronic components and other supplies arriving from oversee;
• Analysis on the type of supply the industrial stakeholder would need in the year to come in order to implement the innovation described in the EU-Rail Multi-Annual Work Programme with an horizon 2030;
• Identification of supply chains patterns within Europe as well as gaps and innovative mitigation measures in term of sourcing and availability of key materials/components (raw, electronics, etc.);
• An easily publicly accessible information responding to the needs in particular of SMEs;
• Recommendations to ensure further European resilience and autonomy.

This action should research how best to address the global value chain identifying the supply chain needs for the railway system of the future, address the supply constraints and risk of supply availabilities for delivery of the EU rail innovations over time and the strategic options to ensure resilient solutions and autonomy within Europe.

If the global trade and the digitalisation have enabled EU companies to be competitive and produce taking advantage of a global supply chain, it has also showed its limitation in operating under a lock-down situation which affected factories and oversees transportation channels, resulting in scarcity of materials and components and therefore production delays and/or unforeseen costs. This affected the European rail industry as well, but more in particular the SMEs that, if on one side shows great ability to be agile, on the other side they may not have the means to sustain for a long period an unknown supply situation or significantly increased costs. There is therefore a need to identify, mapping – and make easily accessible and available – which alternatives exists or may be viable now and in the future, in particular for the implementation of those rail innovations that requires basic supplies for developing the final hardware and software rail solutions.

The action should also look at existing studies and available material on the global value and supply chains (see for example outcomes from the Horizon Europe call topic “Towards a new normal? Employment and social impacts of changing supply chains and declining trade intensities”^[1]), but focus in particular on the needs for the rail sector, identifying the possible supply needs using as a reference (use cases) the foreseen future innovation described in the EU-Rail Multi-Annual Work Programme with an horizon 2030.

The research should involve all relevant actors and gather expertise leveraging from the knowledge of the rail supply industry, in particular SMEs and start-ups, confronted to possible supply shortages. In addition, applicants should leverage from the expectations of the clients, in the horizon 2030, considering the R&I contribution and vision from the EU-Rail Master Plan and Multi-Annual Work Plan.

Gender dimension

In this topic the integration of the gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) in research and innovation content is not a mandatory requirement.

[1] Call ID: HORIZON-CL2-2021-TRANSFORMATIONS-01-06 https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-details/horizon-cl2-2021-transformations-01-06;callCode=null;freeTextSearchKeyword=supply;matchWholeText=true;typeCodes=1,0;statusCodes=31094501,31094502,31094503;programmePeriod=2021%20-%202027;programCcm2Id=43108390;programDivisionCode=null;focusAreaCode=null;destination=null;mission=null;geographicalZonesCode=null;programmeDivisionProspect=null;startDateLte=null;startDateGte=null;crossCuttingPriorityCode=null;cpvCode=null;performanceOfDelivery=null;sortQuery=sortStatus;orderBy=asc;onlyTenders=false;topicListKey=topicSearchTablePageState