The last years saw a surge of interest in cases for AI-based manufacturing such as predictive maintenance, quality and waste management and generative product design. Nevertheless, these cases are deployed independently from each other, do not make use of trusted AI and do not leverage data from circular value chains, in some cases barely digitized. This limits AI potential to enable a transition to holistic, end-to-end approach to sustainable manufacturing, to exploit the full potential of circular economy, while being acceptable and trusted by all stakeholders of the value chain.
Circular TwAIn is aimed to lower the barriers for all the stakeholders in manufacturing and process industry circular value chains to adopt and fully leverage trusted AI technologies, in ways that will enable end-to-end sustainability, i.e. from eco-friendly product and production processes design (i.e. ‘circularity by design’), to the maximum exploitation of production waste across the circular chain. To this end, the project is working to deliver a novel AI platform for circular manufacturing value chains, which will support the development of interoperable circular twins for end-to-end sustainability, fostering the transition to Industry 5.0.
To maximise its impact, Circular TwAIn has actively pursued collaboration and complementarity with other projects and initiatives. The digital and green transitions addressed by the project are deeply intertwined with the work of Made in Europe, supported by EFFRA and the AI4Manufacturing Project Cluster, as well as with ADRA and circular economy-related communities. Notably, recent projects such as DaCapo, AUTO-TWIN, and CIRC-UITS are working on Data Spaces for Circularity, creating valuable synergies.
Circular TwAIn has also initiated a strong collaboration with the Digital Factory Alliance (DFA)—of which ENG is a founding member—as a key vehicle to scale up project outcomes beyond the consortium and project timeframe. This collaboration led to the launch of the Sustainable Manufacturing Initiative, which aims to consolidate results under an impactful, long-lasting action. The initiative provides a platform where relevant projects and stakeholders contributing to the sustainability of European industries (and beyond) can promote their results and foster collective progress.
Moreover, the partnership with EFFRA has been further strengthened through the co-organization of the project’s final event, titled “Data, AI and Digital Twin Convergence for Efficient and Sustainable Manufacturing”, held at SPARKS in Brussels, back-to-back with the EFFRA General Assembly. This event provided a high-visibility platform to showcase project outcomes and engage with a broad community of stakeholders.
