MICS

Made in Italy Circolare e Sostenibile

Future is our partner

Working to make Made in Italy design and production practices circular, self-sufficient, self-regenerative, reliable, safe and sustainable.

Where entrepreneurs and researchers, public and private sectors work together.

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Made in Italy Circolare e Sostenibile (MICS)

is an Extended Partnership funded by MUR (MUR - Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca).

About us

Made in Italy, designed for the world

MICS – Made in Italy Circolare e Sostenibile is an Extended Partnership between Universities, Research Centers and Enterprises financed by MUR – Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca thanks to funds made available by the European Union under the NextGenerationEU (PNRR) program.
MICS connects businesses and research, public and private sectors, creating a unique unity of puropose. Today three key sectors of the Italian industrial scenario are involved, namely Fashion, Furniture and Factory Automation.

By dividing the research into eight thematic areas (called Spokes), MICS is at the forefront in tackling the challenges to Italy’s design, production and consumption models, as well as to end-of-life materials, products, production technologies and processes needed to move towards greener and more circular pathways and patterns.

Eventi

Kick-off Meeting - Partenariato esteso

02 febbraio 2023

MADE Compentence Center Industry 4.0 | Via Durando, 10 20156 – Milano (Italia)

I partner si incontreranno di persona per la prima volta per definire lo scenario di futuri progetti innovativi e collaborazioni esclusive. Un evento di presentazione delle idee di business e match-making per i partner, per coinvolgerli in prima persona e garantire loro la possibilità di trovare il progetto giusto su cui collaborare.

Sectors

Looking for excellence

MICS activities focus on three of the four MAde in Italy key sectors, whose leading companies are among the memebers of the Extended Partnership. MICS’s impact of sustaibability and circularity aims to be pervasive not only in Italy but also abroad, thanks in no small part to the extraordinary collaboration among public and private sectors.

Fashion

Fashion, Apparel, Leather, Textile, Footwear, Eyewear, and Accessories

Furniture

Furniture and Interiors, Contracts, Exhibits, Yacht Design

Factory automation

Automation, Mechatronics, Machinery and Mechanical technologies

SPOKES

Making the future 8 times as sustainable and circular

Each one of the eight Spokes corresponds to a research area in which MICS partners can work together following a shared path. Spokes are transversal to the three sectors MICS focuses on.

Spoke 1

Digital Advanced Design: technologies, processes, and tools

Spoke 2

Eco-Design strategies: from materials to Product Service Systems – PSS

Spoke 3

Green and sustainable products & materials from non-critical & secondary raw sources

Spoke 4

Smart and sustainable materials for circular and augmented industrial products and processes

Spoke 5

Closed-loop, sustainable, inclusive factories and processes

Spoke 6

Additive Manufacturing as disruptive enabler of the Twin Transition

Spoke 7

New and consumer-driven business models for resilient and circular supply chains

Spoke 8

Digitally-oriented factory design and management through AI and data driven approaches

RESEARCH PROJECTS

Flagships

The factory in space

We’ll design a factory in space that will need to be fully closed loop, based on Additive Manufacturing practices in order to produce any objects that may be needed, with no additional material supply from the Earth. This means that the materials used to produce a product are then re-atomized and fully re-used with no scraps, no waste possible. Circularity brought to the very extreme!

Customized smart products with zero-impact

Products will be designed to have minimum footprint and optimized lifetime performances, minimum energetic impact, smart functions and morphing capabilities by leveraging digital technologies. Furthermore, the use of local or recycled materials, zero-waste Additive Manufacturing practices and on-demand policies during production will show the effectiveness of resilient and circular factories and value chains.

Sustainable jewels manufacturing

New solutions for urban mining combined with virtual design and the zero-waste Additive Manufacturing production techniques for customized jewellery will be explored. Products will be designed directly by the users and in the metaverse to avoid the need for sampling, then they will be assembled by an augmented craftsman with help from a collaborative robot, in a lean and low-impact production environment without the need for warehousing.

Bio-printed materials

Materials bio-printing will pave the way to a new dimension of sustainable luxury, where organic, but artificially created material is considered as reference example. Products will be designed directly by the users and in the metaverse to avoid the need for sampling, then they will be assembled by an augmented craftsman in a lean and low-impact production environment with help from a collaborative robot.

Anti-counterfeiting for Made in Italy

Counterfeiting will be addressed through a number of different and integrated technologies such as tracking by using specific materials, digital technologies such as blockchain to track the supply chain, alongside Additive Manufacturing practices used to design and produce unique products containing special RFId and tags to trace the origin of the item.

Structure

One for all, all for one

MICS consists of 25 partners, including 12 public sector partners and 13 industrial partners.

It brings together Italy’s best research centers and key industrial leaders from three sectors that make and will make sustainability their banner.

All partners aim to collaborate in different circularity-oriented projects under the governance of a Spoke.