CASTLE

CASTLE (Cooperation Among SMEs Toward Logistic Excellence) aims to improve regional transport and logistics policies, particularly those concerning SMEs. EU regions strongly base their future economic competitiveness on SMEs and their ability to face the new globalized demands of production and the market, which requires managing fragmented supply flows, meeting flexibility and capillarity requirements, and integrating the value chain.

However, SME systems lack innovation and training in the logistics sector and rely on individual organizational models, mainly based on road transport solutions. To address these issues, CASTLE aims to promote the exchange of experiences to develop public policies on SME logistics, reducing the gap between transport and logistics efficiency on one side and environmental protection and energy savings on the other.

Policy-making is improved through monitoring, analysis, exchange, and transfer of best practices, the creation of a new regional policy tool (the EU CASTLE Forum), which can be used by policymakers, and the implementation of joint policy-making exercises among partners.

These activities are also based on a bottom-up approach to strengthen logistics governance, thanks to the establishment of Regional Logistics Forums, which bring SMEs’ logistics needs to policymakers’ attention according to the triple-helix principle.

CASTLE’s policy-learning connects regions with different levels of experience and enhances policymakers’ skills in four key innovation areas:

• Strengthening logistics supply and the logistics industry
• Improving logistics demand in production systems (industrial areas and clusters)
• Enhancing logistics training for SME systems
• Institutional and governance consolidation in logistics, with public-private cooperation in policy development

CASTLE integrates training, ICT, industrial and economic actions, and public transport interventions to create a new cross-sectoral policy approach to SME logistics. This fosters the establishment and improvement of SME logistics clusters, strengthens networking, boosts regional competitiveness, and promotes sustainable development.

ITL coordinates the project and is specifically responsible for activities aimed at improving policies in the Emilia-Romagna region.

Coordinatore:

Institute for Transport and Logistics Foundation (ITL), IT

Partner:

Emilia-Romagna Region, IT

Institute of Logistics and Warehousing, PL

Marshal Office of the Wielkopolska Region, PL

Region of Crete, EL

Stuttgart Region Economic Development Corporation, DE

University of Maribor – Faculty of Civil Engineering, SI

Foundation Comunidad Valenciana European Region (FCVRE), ES

Development Agency of Carinthia, AT

Pannon Business Network Association, HU