Distributed Systems @ UniFE

SmartChain is an industrial research project financed by POR FESR Emilia Romagna 2014-2020 within the framework of the Smart Specialization Strategy (S3) and proposes the creation of a set of solutions based on blockchain technologies to identify and implement innovative platforms useful for businesses of the territory that can improve the characteristics of modern solutions, or that can create completely new market dynamics.

This is done by analyzing the current production scenarios, certification and tracing of the supply chains, proposing and implementing the aforementioned software systems.

The project deals with issues of different industrial sectors, including production and control chains related to agri-food products, the production of food processing technologies, and the management of supply chains and anti-counterfeiting systems for the fashion world.

Intersectoral synergies are exploited by actively involving local businesses to identify similarities and peculiarities of the supply chains of the different sectors, represented for example by complex supply chains, the importance of brands, and stringent regulatory and ethical constraints.

Context and motivations

In order to create products in an efficient and cost-effective way, modern supply chains are made up of increasingly complex systems for the use of products and services that allow the continuous and articulated exchange of data, but which do not offer guarantees for transparent, secure and unchangeable information management.

SmartChain is intended to design and develop solutions for the secure and integrated management of the information exchanged in the supply chain for the production and distribution of goods of high economic and social value based on blockchain technologies. The realization will integrate existing technologies, proof-of-concept systems developed by partners in the context of their previous research and collaborations, and new solutions, to obtain systems whose effectiveness will be demonstrated in the field.

Based on the needs already expressed by the industrial partners, the aim is to identify solutions that ensure the traceability of the information exchanged between the participants, allowing the monitoring of the correct behavior of the participants through the typical methods of analyzing the flows of goods introduced and realized by the production system.

Goals

The main goal of the project is to meet the requirements of supply systems chains such as Security by design, Interoperability, Efficiency, Scalability, Transparency and Confidentiality through the use of the most modern and advanced Blockchain technologies.

Involved Partners

• Alma Mater Studiorum Bologna
• Bianco Accessori
• Carpigiani Group
• CROSS-TEC di ENEA
• INFN-TTLab
• Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium
• UNIMORE – CRIS
• Università degli Studi di Ferrara – MechLav Laboratory