BRIDGE Project Launches RFID Research, Development Initiative

July 20, 2006

The Building Radio frequency IDentification solutions for the Global Environment (BRIDGE) project lunched a three-year initiative dedicated to research, development, training and demonstration in the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) based on EPCglobal standards. The project is supported by the European Union (EU) Sixth Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP6) with €7.5 million funding.

The BRIDGE project will focus on:

• Business-based research.
• Provision of information services and hardware including sensors and tags.
• Software development.

This will lead to pilots, deployment and comprehensive training materials in the use of RFID in a variety of business sectors.

Coordinated by GS1, the BRIDGE project brings together 31 organisations. Participants in the programme comprise universities in Europe and China, including three of the Auto-ID Labs, solutions providers and retailers, manufacturers and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

"Since its inception, RFID has been hailed as the panacea for a more sophisticated and efficient global supply chain, but there are many questions to answer before this is realised," said Henri Barthel, technical director at EPCglobal and BRIDGE project coordinator. "Cross-industry participation in such a large scale project is a key to its success. The BRIDGE project will transform RFID from being an identification technology into providing an EPCglobal based product information network."

The BRIDGE project will also help with the following business sectors:

• Anti-counterfeiting - development of new services in the EPCglobal network will reduce the level of piracy of goods which is a serious problem in Europe. • Healthcare - increasing patient safety by improving traceability and certifying the pedigree of pharmaceutical products as they move from the manufacturer to the final user. • Textile industry - better fulfillment of customers needs by increasing the flow and accuracy of information through a global supply chain. • Food manufacturing processes - reducing waste and stock holding and improving visibility and traceability of products and equipment, thereby improving food safety. • Reusable assets - improving information exchange and asset management between supply chain partners to effect reduction in losses and costs. • Products in-service - developing systems and processes to increase the reliability of the upgrade, repair and replacement processes throughout the life of many products. • Retail environment - optimising processes in retail stores in order to increase service to the customer by using RFID on consumer sale units.

Source: GS1.