FUNES [FUrniture New European Skills 2020] has stemmed from a latent need that wood and furniture companies are enduring. In the last 10 years, there has been a vast myriad of changes related to globalization, new ways of working, new consumer habits, product customization, etc. The rationale of the project was to solve this need that current and future workers bereft of, which was covering those skills that they are in need of acquiring, in order to develop a work with a optimum level of quality and standards required by their companies, due to new scenarios.Consequently, the aims of the project were to determine the emerging skills demanded by companies in the furniture industry regarding new scenarios, as well as developing an e-learning training material that will be facilitated to the target in order to achieve these new skills. As regards the partnership, it was ambitiously composed by seven multidisciplinary participants that create altogether an initiative with synergy: AIDIMME (Spain) and COSMOB, (Italy) which are Technology Institutes specialized in the wood and furniture sector, specialization that also shares the Technology Institute ITD (Poland), focused on the wood sector; Vocational Education and Training Centres, such as and CFPIMM (Portugal); Enaip Lombardia Foundation (Italy), an acknowledged training agency that delivers a wide variety of high quality training courses and services for the workforce; FEVAMA, a business association in the wood and furniture sector; and InnovaWood (Belgium), which is an umbrella organisation that integrates four European networks in the Forest, Wood-based and Furniture industries into a more effective mechanism to support innovation in these sectors. Thereupon, these activities carried out: - European mapping of the current situation in the furniture industry;- Definition and development of future scenarios; - Compilation of those skills demanded by companies in the furniture sector in the new scenarios;- Development of a self-assessment skills system; - E-learning training course;- Pilot test;- Pilot testing results and improvements.These activities will lead to European analyses and studies about what concerns the wood and furniture skills in the future scenarios, as well as potential training course with its validated pilot test with target members. The methodology used was through questionnaires for the research activities; an e-learning course hosted in a training Moodle platform for elaboration the training course and pilot testing.The impact envisaged has been multiple. From the sectoral point of view, this project has facilitated the knowledge that will constitute those new competencies that the current and futures workers of the furniture sector need to have to face new challenges, in the same way to the furniture Vocational Education and Training. This project provides information on the new needs of the market of work in the case of the furniture sector. The training material allows workers to expand their knowledge, and with this information, FUNES is promoting PROFESIONAL DEVELOPMENT OPORTUNITIES, leading to establish future strategies or activities that will allow companies to undertake in order to face prospective scenarios.

NIMBLE: collaboration Network for Industry, Manufacturing, Business and Logistics in Europe will develop the infrastructure for a cloud-based, Industrie 4.0, Internet-of-things-enabled B2B platform on which European manufacturing firms can register, publish machine-readable catalogs for products and services, search for suitable supply chain partners, negotiate contracts and supply logistics, and develop private and secure B2B and M2M information exchange channels to optimise business work flows. The infrastructure will be developed as open source software under an Apache-type, permissive license. The governance model is a federation of platforms for multi-sided trade, with mandatory interoperation functions and optional added-value business functions that can be provided by third parties. This will foster the growth of a net-centric business ecosystem for sustainable innovation and fair competition as envisaged by the Digital Agenda 2020. Prospective NIMBLE providers can take the open source infrastructure and bundle it with sectoral, regional or functional added value services and launch a new platform in the federation. Internet platforms need fast adoption rates and the work plan reflects this: we start attracting early adopters from day one and develop the initial, working platform in year one. Added-value business functions follow in year two and final validation at large scale, involving hundreds of external firms, will happen in year three. Our adoption plan is designed to enable two or more platform providers at the end of the project, and to have 1000 to 2000 enterprises connected to the overall ecosystem at that point. NIMBLE has 17 partners grouped around 3 main activities: developing the infrastructure, running a platform adoption programme, and validating the platform with 4 supply chains (white goods, wooden houses, fashion fabrics, and child care furniture). NIMBLE will give manufacturing SMEs in Europe a stable and sustainable digital ecosystem.

The Cir4Fun Project endeavours to transform the furniture industry by championing circular economy principles across the product life cycle. Through innovative strategies, DPP and digital solutions supporting mechanisms, it aims to enhance furniture sustainability, eco-labelling, and consumer engagement while aligning with relevant regulations and initiatives. Cir4Fun's approach involves creating a comprehensive circular economy roadmap, defining content for a Furniture DPP, developing circular business models and eco-design guidelines, and establishing new assessment methodologies for maintenance, reparability, refurbishment, remanufacturing and recyclability. All this knowledge will be integrated in a holistic Furniture Assessment System (FAS) including a Sustainable Index System, d-LCA, LCC, SLCA. FAS will support the furniture eco-scoring system and DPP. Additionally, it focuses on interoperability, data sharing and data management with reliable approaches to enable simulation testing to inform supply chain strategies and extend product lifespan. Social engagement with stakeholders is emphasized to promote sustainable behaviours and circular practices, ultimately supporting new regulations and standardization in the furniture industry. The project outcomes will be implemented and validated in 3 use cases addressing different value chains across Europe and the findings will be widely circulated across the furniture ecosystem in Europe.