European value chains for rail supply
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”[[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]]), 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.