Change is the permanent situation in which we are living, boosted by three main drivers identified in the new European Industrial Strategy plus by the COVID-19 pandemics, that on the one side is pushing SMEs towards digitalisation, and on the other side is pushing us all towards the need to recover and to build a resilient – and sovereign – industry for Europe.
In order to achieve the economic recovery in Europe, after the COVID-19 pandemic, it will only materialise if SMEs are properly supported by adequate actions and policy measures to adapt to changed value-chains and demand.
Those necessary adaptations should be exploited as an opportunity to improve their environmental footprint and their economic resilience, among others through the uptake of advanced technologies.
STARS project is put on a key European Industrial “meta-“ Ecosystem, composed by the “Mobility – Transport - Automotive” Ecosystem and its ‘side’ Ecosystem “Constructions” (Building of Railways), and that we will call “Railway & Multimodality industrial meta-ecosystem”.
Focusing on the Railway & Multimodality meta-ecosystem with the STARS project answers the above-mentioned policy efforts but also – with reference to Global Competitiveness as one of the three drivers of the EU Industrial strategy - EU’s effort to maintain its world industrial and market leadership in this field, that is challenged by third countries such as China, Japan and Korea also in terms of innovation capacity.
The Railway Supply Industry (RSI) in the EU accounts for nearly half of the world market for rail products and has a market share of more than 80% in Europe, while – as top exporter – it accounts for approximately 20% of world trade with railway products. The world leadership of the European RSI is largely due to its research, development and innovation (RDI) capacities; however, the average 2,7% of industry investments in RDI on annual turnover is significantly lower than in other transport sectors such as automotive and aviation, and for this it is key to untap the full potential of industrial transition and innovation also through the uptake of Advanced Technologies in the SMEs of the entire Value Chains. SMEs account for more than 90% of the European Railway Industry, representing a crucial engine for Europe, but at the same time they have to face many obstacles such as limited opportunities of access to knowledge, missing of technological foresight, limited long-lasting attractiveness for skilled employees, limited human and financial resources to be dedicated to RDI, limited exploitation of international opportunities and limited access to third markets rules and regulations.
STARS project aims to represent a booster in terms of production performances and innovation capabilities for these SMEs thanks to the uptake of Advanced Technologies that can make such change possible.
Advanced Technologies have proved to give competitive advantages and definitely will build the”Future Mobility”.
Several of the technologies which will foster the future of the Railway & Multimodality industrial meta-ecosystem:
STARS aims to help SMEs focusing in:
STARS priority lies in the recovery, transition and resilience of passenger and freight mobility through the use of advanced technologies to overcome, adapt and boost the several challenges Europe is facing; to name a few: Transition in public mobility of passengers to answer megatrends of Urbanisation (need to move growing numbers of people in urban areas) and Ageing Population (need to make stations, vehicles and the entire journey experience accessible to people with reduced mobility), and Transport and behavioural change (need to adapt to the needs and aspirations of end-users, seamless intermodality, etc.);
To make freight railway transport being structurally the backbone of logistics in all Europe, as set in the EU Green Deal and in the new EU Strategy on Sustainable and Smart Mobility; And, of course, to foster and complete the Green Transition in our sector.
STARS offers a complete ‘transformation path’ to more traditional SMEs grouped in small “Strategic Alliances” to face such challenges. We will:
Help them understand what the Advanced Technologies are and how they work, how to benefit from them to achieve specific business goals, and what the possible obstacles to the uptake can be and how to possibly remove them.
Prepare the ground for the most effective uptake of such technologies in terms of cultural mindset, organization and skills e.g. support to cultural and organizational transformation, support to upskilling, marketing analysis to understand the business opportunities for innovation based on such Advanced Technologies, and training on IPR – including how to make use of licensing from tech-savvy SMEs, and use their enabling solutions to develop new products/services.
Provide them with the specific business support necessary for the adaptation of the technologies and provide support on accessing public and private funding for the adoption of such technologies.
Provide them with specific technical assistance from Technology Centres, consisting of technical expertise and recommendations related to specific technology needs, identification of technologies, technology barriers, technology efficiency, as well as piloting and deployment of technologies.
Explore concrete collaboration opportunities with tech-savvy SMEs to improve industrial competencies, ecosystem resilience, and add value to the sector and value chains.
Scout new business & technology ideas answering our sectoral challenges through collaboration between more traditional SMEs, tech-savvy SMEs, start-ups, etc. from different ecosystems in 5 Hackathons & Matchmaking events.
Within the STARS project the Italian start-up “Apuana SB” - developer and provider of a blockchain network – will customise such network for the European railway value chain and will make it available for the project implementation. The other project Partners will become distributed "Mining Nodes", and the SMEs within the Strategic Alliances will be coached on the Blockchain network, will be enabled to use it with individual accounts and a wide set of tagging systems, and will be assisted in the actual use of the technology for their own use cases. The availability of the STARS Blockchain Network will multiply the impact of the STARS project, boosting both the “learning-by-doing,” activities to be run by the Technology Centres, as well as the "Hack & Match" events that we will organise, allowing our target SMEs to experience the technology applying it first hand to their use cases.
The project includes the construction in this website of a comprehensive database and mapping of European critical tech-savvy SMEs which deliver solutions based on Advanced technologies.
The STARS Partners have signed the EU “Pact for Skills” Charter to jointly commit in supporting a fair and resilient recovery and a digital and green transition of the target meta-ecosystem, with specific focus on SMEs’ skills, as well as supporting the meta-ecosystem attractiveness to young people and high skills workers.
STARS has been developed and coordinated by DITECFER railway cluster from Italy and has the support of 30 key European organisations. It includes 10 Railway Cluster organisations based in 8 COSME countries and covering 14 countries in total, "5 Technology Centres selected following a value-chain approach and offering complementary specialisations suitable to accompany any type of SME for any type of transition need" 1 Digital Innovation Hub, providing useful tools and approaches to digital transition in SMEs. Finally 1 start-up developer and provider of a blockchain network that will be specifically made available and dedicated to the project for the European railway value chain
The project has a duration of 24 months starting from October 2021 ending September 2023. The project workload is structured into 5 Work Packages:
1.1 Project management
1.2 Monitoring of the project activities
1.3 Partners’ teaming-up and Pact for Skills
2.1 Creation of synergies and partnerships
2.2 Advisory Group creation and management
2.3 STARS pilot-model legacy for Europe
3.1 SMEs Survey and analysis
3.2 Shared knowledge building
3.3 Technological Innovation analysis
3.4 STARS Strategic Plan
3.5 Preparation for the use of the Blockchain network
4.1 Launch and coordination of the Strategic Alliances
4.2 Business Support to the Strategic Alliances
4.3 Technical Assistance to the Strategic Alliances
4.4 Hack & Match events
5.1 Communication and Dissemination
5.2 Inspiration
The STARS project has received funding from the European Union’s Competitiveness of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (COSME) programme under the Grant Agreement number: 101037897 — STARS — COS-STRAT-2020-3-05
