MTU

Munster Technological University — Ireland · Project Coordinator

Munster Technological University was established in 2021 through the merger of Cork Institute of Technology and Institute of Technology Tralee, and operates across campuses in Cork and Kerry. As a technological university, it combines higher education with applied research and innovation carried out in cooperation with enterprise and regional partners.

MTU coordinates FLARE. It leads WP1 – Project Management & Administration and WP2 – Stakeholder Engagement & Co-Design of the FLARE Solution, where user-centred design and co-creation workshops translate industrial needs into the project’s requirements and reference architecture. MTU also leads the development of forecasting models for grid energy availability and market prices, built on an Automated Machine Learning framework for time-series modelling.

SUPSI

University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland — Switzerland

SUPSI is a university of applied sciences recognised by the Swiss Confederation. It is organised into four departments and a network of affiliated schools, offering Bachelor, Master and continuing education programmes.

Research activities are carried out by a multitude of institutes, competence centres and specialised laboratories active in the various departments and affiliated schools, in close cooperation with local, federal and international institutions, companies and partners.

Within FLARE, SUPSI leads WP6 – FLARE Decision Intelligence Platform, the work package that turns the project’s models, control systems and assessment tools into usable decision support: flexible production scheduling, design assessment support, operational dashboards and the decarbonisation planning support tool. SUPSI also leads the first Dissemination and Communication Plan of the project.

USE

Universidad de Sevilla — Spain

The University of Seville traces its origins to the Colegio de Santa María de Jesús, founded by Archdeacon Rodrigo Fernández de Santaella and authorised to award degrees by papal bull in 1505; the city council recognised it as an official university in 1551. It today spans a wide range of faculties and technical schools, with research activity across engineering, the sciences and the humanities.

In FLARE, USE leads WP4 – Digitisation & Advanced Control for Flexibility, the work package that turns the project’s models and digital twins into real-time control and optimisation strategies, combining advanced data management, predictive analytics and cyber-resilient automation. USE also leads the module that feeds sustainability assessment back into process optimisation and control, and the final version of the control and optimisation tools for flexible operation.

UCC

University College Cork — Ireland

University College Cork was established in 1845 and opened to its first students in 1849. It is a research-intensive university with a self-declared history of independent thinking, and its research spans fields from energy systems modelling and data analytics to health and the social sciences.

Within FLARE, UCC leads the work on fault detection and predictive maintenance. Drawing on the project’s digital twins and analytics, it designs methods to detect anomalies early, diagnose root causes and prevent them from escalating into critical failures, using established approaches such as LEAN and Six Sigma and reliability metrics including OEE, MTTF and MTTR. The aim is to ensure that added flexibility never comes at the cost of equipment integrity or production continuity. UCC also contributes to the decarbonisation planning support tool developed in WP6.

VTT

Teknologian tutkimuskeskus VTT Oy — Finland

VTT is a limited liability company fully owned by the Finnish state, operating under the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment. Its stated purpose is to advance the utilisation and commercialisation of research and technology in commerce and society, working across fields that include energy, materials, manufacturing and digital systems.

In FLARE, VTT leads WP5 – Tools for Flexible Operation & Continuous Assessment. It defines the project’s holistic assessment methodology and KPI framework, builds the Continuous Holistic Assessment Engine that evaluates environmental, economic and societal impacts against sector-specific baselines, and leads the Process Redesign Support System that lets users test what-if scenarios before modifying plants and equipment. VTT also contributes life cycle costing and investment analysis to assess the profitability of decarbonisation investments.

R2M

R2M Solution Srl — Italy

R2M Solution is a research, innovation and technology transfer company launched in Milan in 2012 and active across Europe. It works on developing technologies, products and services and on carrying them to market, across fields including ICT, engineering, robotics and additive manufacturing.

R2M leads WP8 – Communication, Dissemination, Exploitation & Impact Maximisation and acts as innovation and exploitation manager for FLARE. It leads the analysis of flexibility requirements, gaps and skills that opens the project, manages IPR and innovation, and leads the replicability strategy that assesses the technical, economic and regulatory conditions under which FLARE can be transferred to other energy-intensive sites. R2M also conducts the baseline audits and evaluation plans for all three pilots, and produces immersive 3D navigable models of the pilot plants through photogrammetry and LiDAR.

Erre Quadro

Erre Quadro Srl — Italy

Erre Quadro is a software company based in Pisa that builds AI-powered platforms for interpreting technical data, used to support the intellectual property and R&D strategy of technology enterprises through the analysis of patent data and technical documents.

Within FLARE, Erre Quadro leads the skill assessment and training programme. Using NLP-based tools, it analyses patent and technical data to extract emerging technologies, links them to professions and skills through the ESCO database, and builds the FLARE Training Framework – a catalogue of modules, a training webspace and e-learning materials – so that pilot employees can be trained on the skills the new technologies require. Erre Quadro also ensures that the project’s assessment methodology accounts for workforce upskilling, evolving job roles and health and safety, and supports patent and prior-art analysis within the project’s IPR management.

IDENER

Idener Research & Development AIE — Spain

IDENER is a research and development organisation applying artificial intelligence to science and engineering, with work spanning materials, manufacturing, chemistry, biotechnology and agri-food.

IDENER acts as Scientific and Technical Manager of FLARE, monitoring technical progress and coordinating the review and approval of technical deliverables. It leads WP3 – Modelling & Digital Twins for Flexible Manufacturing Systems, coordinating the development of modular digital twins that combine physics-based models with AI surrogate methods, and leads the scalable data platform that collects, manages and analyses the heterogeneous industrial and energy data coming from the pilot sites.

Some Carbon

Some Carbon Enerji ve Karbon Teknolojileri — Türkiye

Some Carbon is a sustainability and carbon management consultancy based in Ankara, working on carbon footprint analysis and reporting, ESG and sustainability strategy, energy efficiency, decarbonisation planning and green transformation.

In FLARE, Some Carbon brings carbon footprint calculation methodologies, sustainability indicators and environmental KPIs into the module that connects sustainability assessment with process optimisation and control. Together with Baştaş it produces and tests cement blends under real operating conditions following EN 197-6 protocols, and co-leads the cement pilot.

TECNALIA

Fundación Tecnalia Research & Innovation — Spain

TECNALIA describes itself as the largest centre for applied research and technological development in Spain. Its mission is to transform technological research into prosperity, working across scopes that include smart manufacturing, digital transformation, energy transition and the circular economy.

TECNALIA leads WP7 – Pilot Implementation and Evaluation, coordinating the deployment and validation of the FLARE solution across the three pilot sites and leading the cross-pilot evaluation of KPIs and impact. It contributes to the steel pilot led by Sidenor, running laboratory heat treatment tests at its own facilities, and extends its REHEAT® software to build a digital twin of electric resistance heat treatment, adapting conduction, convection and radiation models to renewable-powered furnaces, alongside predictive models of induction heat treatment.

ICE

Information Catalyst for Enterprise Ltd — United Kingdom

Information Catalyst is a specialist consultancy based in Cheshire, in the United Kingdom, combining research and innovation with custom software development and commercial consultancy. Its work centres on handling and processing data from heterogeneous sources, formats and domains, with tools for master data management, business intelligence, process orchestration and analytics.

In FLARE, ICE leads the Composite Digital Twin Framework, aligned with standards such as ISO 23247 and the Asset Administration Shell, which connects and orchestrates the individual digital twins developed across the project so that stakeholders can run what-if scenarios without disrupting live operations. ICE also leads the secure edge integration work based on IEC 61499 and containerisation, allowing control services to be packaged, deployed and updated dynamically across edge and cloud infrastructure.

SIDENOR

Sidenor Aceros Especiales SL — Spain · Steel

Sidenor is a producer of special steel long products, with production centres in the Basque Country, Cantabria and Catalonia and sales offices across Europe. It supplies sectors including automotive, heavy vehicles, wind energy, oil and gas and off-highway machinery, and states that it works on sustainability across its entire value chain, including investments in process electrification.

Sidenor hosts and leads the FLARE steel pilot. The site currently runs six heat treatment furnaces on natural gas, treating steel bars up to eight metres long over cycles of 4 to 24 hours. The pilot assesses replacing those furnaces with electric ones, both resistance and induction, combining simulation, laboratory tests at TECNALIA facilities and industrial trials on Sidenor’s own induction furnaces. FLARE scheduling and optimisation tools are then used to plan heat treatments so that the additional electrical power required is minimised against the plant’s other consumption. Sidenor already operates on 100% renewable electricity, and electrification is expected to improve efficiency and enable flexibility through the direct integration of renewable sources.

BAŞTAŞ

Baştaş-Başkent Çimento Sanayi ve Ticaret AŞ — Türkiye · Cement

Baştaş Başkent Çimento produces and markets cement, aggregates and ready-mix concrete from its plant in Elmadağ, near Ankara.

Baştaş leads the FLARE cement pilot, which demonstrates a process-integrated route to blended cement by co-utilising carbonated concrete waste fines and a low-carbon clinker partially substituted with industrial ash residues. The pilot starts from the design and simulation of a new energy line that uses waste heat from the clinker cooling stage to produce electrical energy and drive the addition of ash into the clinker process, optimising energy flows so that cement production itself becomes flexible. Together with Some Carbon, Baştaş produces and tests the cement blends under real operating conditions following EN 197-6 protocols.

GIVAUDAN

Givaudan Ibérica SA — Spain · Chemical

Givaudan describes itself as the global leader in the fragrance and flavour industry. Headquartered in Vernier, Switzerland, it operates through two divisions, Taste & Wellbeing and Fragrance & Beauty. Givaudan Ibérica is its Spanish arm and hosts the FLARE chemical pilot.

The pilot addresses distillation, a process with repeated heating and cooling phases currently powered by natural gas through boilers with low flexibility, which ties production costs to fluctuating gas prices. Givaudan’s decarbonisation roadmap involves a new rooftop PV system and the replacement of a 7.24 MW gas boiler with an electric solution able to draw on that self-generated electricity. FLARE digital twins simulate and redesign the distillation process to match electrical consumption with the heating demand, reduce power draw during ramp-up and ramp-down, and enable the site to contribute to demand response schemes.