EUman partners meet in Ljubljana to advance pilot evaluation and prepare for the uptake of project innovations
Strengthening technology integration, industrial exploitation and training for smart, human-centric remanufacturing
On 29–30 September 2026, the rEUman consortium gathered in Ljubljana, Slovenia, for its sixth live meeting. The two-day meeting marked an important milestone in the Horizon Europe project, as the project is entering it’s second half with technical development work packages completed and the evaluation of the project's five industrial use cases is ongoing.
With the developed technologies progressing through their industrial demonstrations, the consortium increasingly focused on preparing their future uptake. This includes the launching of the APRA academy to bring rEUman's innovations into professional upskilling and academic education, as well as activities supporting the exploitation of project results.
Reviewing technological developments at factory and value-chain levels
The first day focused on reviewing the outcomes of the project's technical work packages and discussing the integration of the developed solutions into the industrial use cases.
Partners presented progress on inspection technologies, data gathering and the integration of a Digital Product Passport (DPP)-compliant data management platform, which aims to improve traceability throughout the remanufacturing process and circular value chain.
At factory level, discussions addressed the development of cyber-physical and digitally enhanced remanufacturing factories, including the integration of digital models and technologies to support more efficient and flexible operations. At circular value-chain level, partners reviewed digital enabling solutions and business intelligence approaches designed to improve information exchange and decision-making across remanufacturing networks.
These discussions provided an opportunity to review how the different technological developments complement one another and contribute to rEUman's overarching objective of establishing smart, digitally enhanced and human-centric remanufacturing solutions.
Exploring industrial uptake with an early adopter
Another highlight of the first day was the introduction of ETRA d.o.o. as an potential early adopter of rEUman innovations.
Representatives of ETRA introduced the company and discussed its interest in remanufacturing, highlighting relevant challenges and opportunities. The exchange provided an industrial perspective on the potential application of rEUman's technologies beyond the original pilot use cases.
ETRA's participation also established a link to the rEUman conference on 1 October 2026,, where the company contributed to discussions on the future of smart remanufacturing.
Engaging with potential early adopters is an important part of preparing the uptake of the project's results and exploring opportunities for their application in additional industrial settings.
Preparing the next phase: Human-centric processes, training and exploitation
The second day began with discussions on human-centric remanufacturing processes at factory level, focusing on the solutions developed to support workers in increasingly digitalised and automated remanufacturing environments.
As the technical development activities have been completed, attention is increasingly turning towards making the project's innovations accessible to future users.
In a dedicated co-creation workshop, consortium partners discussed the development of the rEUman learning resources, which will translate project knowledge and technological developments into learning resources for industry professionals, students and researchers. This includes the APRA academy – a four-week training course with three weeks of online study and 1 week of final hands-on activities at the Eco-Circ lab at Politecnico di Milano – as well as an educational game and the „ReEUmanuthon. The activities aims to support workforce upskilling and academic education, helping to prepare the next generation of remanufacturing specialists for the adoption of advanced digital technologies.
A second workshop addressed exploitation and intellectual property (IP) management. Partners discussed approaches to managing and exploiting project results, supporting their potential industrial application and continued use beyond the project's lifetime.
Together, these activities provided an important basis for the second half of rEUman, connecting the technological results with skills development, knowledge transfer and future exploitation opportunities.
Looking ahead: Bringing rEUman innovations to a wider audience
The meeting concluded with an overview of upcoming pitching activities and final preparations for the rEUman conference, “Solutions for Smart Human-Centric Remanufacturing,” held on 1 October 2026 at Center Rog in Ljubljana.
With its technical development work packages completed and industrial use-case evaluations progressing, rEUman is entering an important phase focused on demonstrating results, transferring knowledge and preparing innovations for future adoption.
The Ljubljana meeting reinforced collaboration across the consortium and helped align the next steps towards achieving the project's ambition of making European remanufacturing smarter, more competitive and human-centric.