About ReSChape
The Project
As a result of the recent pandemic, global value chains have completely transformed. This has raised concerns over the ensuing social, economic and environmental trends and related impact on the way supply chains are organised. In this context, the EU-funded ReSChape project will analyse social, economic and environmental changes and disruptions, including the COVID-19 pandemic, and evaluate their impact on supply chains.
New supply chain models will be proposed, aiming towards a more streamlined supply chain process to assure humans (workers, consumers and in general citizens) to be at the center of the business also thanks to new digital technologies. It will be studied how to assure a positive social impact and innovative policy scenarios will be developed with recommendations to support the future supply chains.
Objectives
The aims of this proposal are:
Objective #1
To analyse social, economic and environmental changes and disruptions (including COVID) and evaluate their impact on Supply Chains (SCs), identifying related challenges in terms of the relationship between countries, the configuration of the network and the impact on employment.
Objective #2
To study and propose a set of SC models for the evolution of global SC integrating strategies like resource efficiency, closed-loop and humanitarian as a way to increase EU resilience and sustainability, digitalization will be studied as a way to establish new paths for social inclusion considering the needs of urban and rural areas.
Objective #3
To develop Innovative tools for monitoring and assessing sectoral trade patterns and defining mechanisms to evaluate the relationship between disruptions, like pandemics, and global value chains taking into consideration the impact on employment, economic growth, incomes, etc., also in the long term.
Objective #4
To develop innovative policy scenarios with recommendations for future global value chains based on Key horizontal issues impacting several sectors and will provide recommendations for EU, national and sectoral strategies, policy measures and targeted actions aimed at shaping fair, inclusive and sustainable trade patterns and SCs.
Experienced Partners
The project is coordinated by Consiglio Nazionale Delle Ricerche (CNR)
EU and extra EU Countries
From October 2022 to October 2025, funded by HORIZON EUROPE
The Work Packages
WP1 – Project Management
The purpose of WP1 is to efficiently manage and administrate project activities. Therefore, an adequate management structure is put in place to handle coordination of work carried out in project, quality control, financial and thematic reporting and any communication among the project partners, the associated members and the stakeholders in general.
WP2 – Global Trends and Innovative Supply Chain Models
The main objective of WP2 is to propose innovative models for SCs shaped by various socio-economic, political and technological trends and changes. In doing so, challenges and opportunities will be outlined, which will help to define how SCs strategies and processes can be improved to make them more social oriented.
WP2 Results
Trends and risks for supply chains
The goal of WP2 was to propose innovative models for supply chains shaped by various current trends that comprise significant changes and challenges in supply chain management. To achieve this in the first place, ReSChape identified the main trends and risks for supply chains at the present time.
The methodological approach was guided by the PESTLE (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental) framework to examine all relevant megatrends and trends that can shape the landscape of manufacturing, process manufacturing, logistics, and supply chain management. A structured literature analysis is conducted to identify the exogenous trends and to ensure the inclusion of newly arising, most current trends taking into consideration recent emerging changes due to sudden disruptions like the pandemic or the Ukraine war. The results from the literature review were supplemented by empirically collected insights from various external stakeholders in a workshop.
Following up on the trend analysis, ReSChape identified risks for supply chains that arise from those trends already identified and affect European companies. As a methodological approach, systematically derived scientific papers were analysed. The supply chain risks have been clustered per megatrend and evaluated according to their impact on supply chain sustainability and according to the probability of occurrence. Thanks to the validation with the workshop, it was possible to confirm with experts the list of identified risks, and interaction with them it was possible to finalise the list. The workshop was the place to start the discussion related to the vulnerability generated by each group of risks on the supply chain grounding it on a probability of occurrence and on the expected impact on supply chain processes.
Political dimension
In the political dimension are trends in the areas of protectionism, political instability, and supranationalism that have a significant impact on global supply chains and trade relationships. Especially with respect to the war in Ukraine, the emerging social unrest became a societal concern in many countries and is focused on in this dimension.
Economic dimension
In the economic dimension, the global trade shift confirms trends like export growth and a reorganized globalization while further emerging trends are the result of the pandemic crises like the increasing inflation. The digital economy paradigm comprises trends such as digital platforms and sharing economy approaches as well as new financial models and crypto currencies affecting supply chain processes. More info
Social dimension
The social dimension reveals the megatrends demographic change, urbanization, consumption patterns, digital leaners, and knowledge-based society. These megatrends are pointed out as they highlight societal shifts that differ in developing and developed countries, changing consumer preferences, and the importance of knowledge management and continuous learning within the workforce. More info
Technological dimension
Given the established pervasiveness of the digital technologies, the technological dimension comprises new trends adoption that are grouped in the following megatrends: increasing data, autonomous things and hyperautomation, infrastructure and security-related risks, and technology contributions to alternative energy sources. These megatrends reflect advancements in technology that drive innovation and automation, as well as the transition to more sustainable energy solutions.
Legal dimension
The legal dimension encompasses three megatrends: consumer protection, informational regulation, and social and environmental regulations. These megatrends are important because they address issues of data privacy, and the growing emphasis on corporate social responsibility.
Environmental dimension
Lastly, the environmental dimension includes two megatrends: climate change and resource scarcity. These megatrends highlight the pressing need to address environmental challenges, such as pollution, global warming, and the efficient management of waste and resources.
It’s been demonstrated that the environment in which European companies operate is subject to rapid and constant change. This implies that not only the type and number of risks constantly changes, but that there are increasing dynamics companies must cope with taking into consideration the sources of these risks. The results underline the necessity of approaches and strategies with which resilience in supply chains can be increased in a sustainable and targeted manner which will be studied in the next tasks. At the same time, they lay the foundation for further conceptual activities of ReSChape project, in which necessary approaches and strategies will be developed and validated.
WP3 – Impact of new Supply Chain Models on Social Indicators
The main element of this WP is to assess the effects of the trends identified in the previous WPs and the resulting changes in global SCs and trade patterns on socio-economic outcomes, such as GDP, employment, job quality, wages, and income inequality.
WP4 – Development of Policy Scenarios
The working package aims at proposing policy recommendations that can support public as well as private organisations in overcoming the economical, ecological, and social impacts from changes in European value chains, contributing to the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan.
WP5 – Dissemination & Communication
The goal of the work package is to implement a multitude of measures to communicate the findings of the project for an integrated approach of SC at European level as well as to exploit the ReSChape results. A sustainable dissemination and exploitation platform based on cluster involvement at a regional, national and European level aims to maximize the awareness of the project results and to facilitate the engagement of stakeholders.
