Europe Moves Toward More Resilient and Sustainable Supply Chains
The ReSChape Project consortium, funded by Horizon Europe, concludes after three years of research, delivering practical tools, social indicators, and public policy recommendations to strengthen industrial resilience and sustainability across Europe.
Zaragoza (Spain), October 23, 2025. — Europe is making progress toward more resilient and sustainable supply chains in the face of global challenges. This is one of the main conclusions of the European ReSChape Project after three years of joint research and collaboration among universities, technology centers, and companies across the continent.
The European project ReSChape (Reshaping Supply Chains for a Positive Social Impact) has contributed to making Europe’s supply chains stronger and more sustainable in response to global crises, logistical disruptions, and new legislative changes. Throughout its development, the team created the ReSChape Radar, a tool designed to assess and monitor companies’ supply chain resilience and sustainability. The project also produced practical guides to improve supplier management, logistics outsourcing, and risk prevention. In addition, it developed a social accounting system to measure the social and labor impact of business decisions and analyzed how key EU regulations — such as CBAM, CSDDD, and CRMA — affect the economy.
All these resources are freely available on the project website: https://reschape.eu.
The ReSChape team of researchers and experts has also formulated a series of public policy recommendations aimed at improving coordination among countries and fostering innovation in the sector. In its proposals to the European Commission, the project highlights the need to harmonize regulations within the EU, strengthen internal supply chain support (for example, by creating a database of compliant European suppliers), and ensure fair competition in international trade.
As for the recommendations directed to Member States, ReSChape suggests clarifying national institutional frameworks, increasing transparency through digital directories listing the authorities responsible for implementing regulations, and reinforcing business support programs. The project also recommends investing in digital infrastructures to enable rapid emissions calculation and product traceability, as well as promoting greater industry participation in the European legislative process.
The project’s conclusions emphasize the need for complementary actions, such as developing standardized social sustainability indicators, designing a social monetary accounting system, and establishing a European Supply Chain Observatory.
During this forum, consortium representatives presented their final results at a session that brought together experts from academia, industry, and policy-making. The speakers agreed that resilience and sustainability must be addressed jointly. In the first roundtable, Pedro Senna (INESC TEC) highlighted the ReSChape Radar as a key tool to anticipate disruptions through preparedness and early warning strategies, while Andrea Zangiacomi (CNR) emphasized the importance of collaboration and digitalization in driving social sustainability.
Aris Matopoulos (Cranfield University) proposed models to engage suppliers in sustainable practices through sectoral partnerships, and Markus Wittman (Fraunhofer) stressed the need for policies supporting cybersecurity and talent reskilling.
Another key topic discussed at ReSChape was social value as an essential part of supply chains. The forum also featured a session focused on integrating social responsibility and labor rights into supply chain management. Ricardo Aguado (University of Deusto) presented the Polyhedral Model developed within ReSChape, which measures companies’ social contributions, while Alicia Martínez de Yuso (Zaragoza Logistics Center) warned about the effects of outsourcing and introduced a system of key performance indicators (KPIs) to detect wage inequalities and labor risks in logistics subcontracting.
Real-world experiences were also shared, demonstrating how social accounting and the engagement of employees and suppliers can build trust and strengthen sustainability.
The final part of the forum gathered experts to analyze the main European regulations — CSDDD, CBAM, and CRMA — showing progress in environmental and social sustainability, but also revealing the need for a specific regulatory framework for resilience, as well as stronger business training and support programs. According to experts, companies’ adaptability will depend on their size, resources, and level of digitalization — underscoring the importance of a stable and predictable regulatory environment.
About the ReSChape Project
The ReSChape consortium (2022–2025) brings together nine partners from five European countries plus the United Kingdom, coordinated by the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) in Rome. The consortium includes University of Deusto, Zaragoza Logistics Center (ZLC), INESC TEC – Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology and Science (Portugal), Fraunhofer Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Angewandten Forschung (Germany), RWI Leibniz Institute for Economic Research (Germany), Eindhoven University of Technology (Netherlands), and IRIS Technology Solutions S.L. (Spain).
Launched after the COVID-19 pandemic, ReSChape set out to develop innovative models that make supply chains more efficient while placing people — workers, consumers, and citizens — at the heart of business activity, supported by technology. The project has also explored ways to ensure positive social impact through innovative policy scenarios and recommendations for the supply chains of the future.