Objective:

We develop a modular teaching programme on managing supply chain risks related to critical materials for business representatives/SMEs, MSc and PhD level students, supported by a web-based ‘criticality scanner’ based on an existing Dutch tool. The programme will be tested with over 250 students.

The solution (technology):

Assessing the criticality of materials as input into production processes is crucial for companies, countries and economic blocs like the EU. Disruption of supply of critical materials can put hundreds of billions of euros of the EU’s export value at risk. It is hence crucial that supply chain managers in companies, and policy makers at country and EU level, can identify supply risks and mitigate them. This proposal will build an education programme on criticality assessment that can be used and will be tested in the context of MSc, PhD and lifelong learning programmes of the project partners and the KIC.

Learning objectives are to understand what makes materials critical, how to assess criticality, to analyse economic and other implications of criticality at company, sector and country level, and to develop strategies to reduce criticality risks. TNO has a criticality assessment tool available developed for Dutch SMEs (‘grondstofscanner’ or ‘raw materials scanner’) that will be translated and expanded to and international context to support this course. During the project we will test the course with over 250 students. The lifelong learning version will be offered commercially after the end of the project, resulting in a likely financial backflow.

Partners:

Leiden University, Netherlands (Lead Partner)
Chalmers tekniska högskola AB (Chalmers University of Technology), Sweden
Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V. (Fraunhofer), Germany
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Toegepast Natuurwetenschappelijk Onderzoek, TNO (Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research), Netherlands

For more information, please visit the project web page.