Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS

Injection Moulding Repurposing for Medical Supplies enabled by Additive Manufacturing

Project description

From commercial plastics to medical supplies: Rapid repurposing of manufacturing capabilities

The current pandemic has highlighted what stakeholders around the world have long known – that delaying risk mitigation measures even a matter of days or a few weeks can have a drastic impact on our ability to contain a biological hazard and protect public and economic health and well-being. Further, recent experience has shown our inability to quickly repurpose manufacturing facilities to produce vital medical equipment and supplies. The EU-funded imPURE project through the collaboration of 19 partners will develop the EU's ability to enable injection moulding facilities to produce medical equipment via additive manufacturing within 48 hours, through rapidly making modular moulds with interchangeable inserts, taking into account the potential disruption of supply chains.

Objective

The modern world is fast-evolving, interconnected and highly mobile, thus posing a significant challenge in harmonizing risk mitigation measures against emerging biological hazards. For many years the risk of emerging infectious diseases with pandemic potential was declared a major threat to global health security and addressed by many stakeholders around the world. The delay in imposing risk mitigation measures is crucial and can make the difference between a local outbreak with few cases to a pandemic with countless sick and deceased citizens, as severely demonstrated by the recent outbreak of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). It is of paramount importance that appropriate and proportionate measures to each phase of the pandemic (e.g. from situations with no reported cases, sporadic, local clusters of cases, to widespread sustained transmission) are immediately implemented to interrupt human-to-human transmission chains, prevent further spread and reduce the intensity of COVID-19 outbreak. Immediate activation of national emergency response mechanisms and pandemic preparedness plans to ensure containment and mitigation of COVID-19 with non-pharmaceutical public health measures is critical for delaying transmission or decreasing the peak of the outbreak, in order to allow healthcare systems to prepare and cope with an increased influx of patients. However, shortages and other gaps in the global medical supply chain represent a mismatch of supply and demand when supply is low and/or demand is high for particular items. With healthcare workers and other first responders feeling the impact of supply chains disrupted by unprecedented challenges, many large and small businesses from outside the traditional healthcare procurement system are reconfiguring to mass produce critical medical consumables. In order to address supply shortages, particularly in medical supplies and protective equipment, some countries have employed less traditional instruments.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

IA - Innovation action

See all projects funded under this funding scheme

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-SC1-PHE-CORONAVIRUS-2020-2

See all projects funded under this call

Coordinator

ETHNICON METSOVION POLYTECHNION
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 658 625,00
Address
HEROON POLYTECHNIOU 9 ZOGRAPHOU CAMPUS
157 72 ATHINA
Greece

See on map

Region
Αττική Aττική Κεντρικός Τομέας Αθηνών
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 658 625,00

Participants (20)

My booklet 0 0