About Us

Smarter replacement decisions, grounded in cost and carbon

NRPCES — New Replacement Policy Considering Environmental Sustainability — helps industry and railway operators decide when to repair, refurbish, or replace long-lived equipment. The platform puts cost, asset condition, and live CO₂ indicators in one place, so economic and environmental evidence inform the same decision.

Programme Eureka Clusters · Sustainability Call 2022
Timeline October 2023 – September 2026
Consortium Sweden · Belgium · Portugal

What NRPCES is

A European research and innovation project that builds an open decision-support system for the economic replacement of industrial and railway assets.

  • Joins real operating costs with environmental parameters and predictive analytics
  • Supports repair, refurbish, or replace choices in asset-heavy operations
  • Shows the live carbon footprint of equipment, not only a static lifecycle estimate
  • Aims to lower total cost of ownership while cutting environmental impact

Industrial and railway assets often stay in service for decades. Replacement is expensive, but keeping worn equipment can raise energy use, maintenance cost, and emissions. NRPCES gives owners a clearer picture of when a change of policy pays off.

Five use cases test the approach in the field: production machinery in Belgium, railway switches and crossings, wheel-set maintenance, a Porto railway case study, and network-level resilience planning.

Project objectives

Turn scattered cost and carbon data into a practical replacement policy.

  • Estimate the economic replacement time from measured cost and environmental data
  • Provide live CO₂ monitoring that can feed sustainability KPIs and reporting
  • Give SMEs and large operators the same quality of evidence for lifecycle decisions
  • Help organisations move from a linear ‘replace when it fails’ model toward circular use

Consortium and funding

Industry, research institutes, and universities across three countries, funded under Eureka Clusters Sustainability Call 2022.

  • National support from VINNOVA (Sweden), INNOVIRIS (Belgium), and ANI / Norte 2030 (Portugal)
  • Project period: October 2023 to September 2026
  • Co-funded with European Union programmes shown on this site

Sweden contributes Damill AB, Predge AB, Trafikverket, Luleå University of Technology, and Mälardalen University, with strengths in maintenance, AI, and infrastructure. Sirris leads the Belgian work on data modelling and platform design. In Portugal, Dosta Tec, FEUP, and ISEP focus on life-cycle assessment, digital tools, and sustainable infrastructure.

Why it matters

Replacement policy is both a cost decision and a climate decision.

  • Makes the trade-off between keeping, repairing, and replacing equipment visible
  • Supports alignment with the European Green Deal and Fit for 55
  • Gives operators evidence they can use in audits, tenders, and internal sustainability reporting

European industry is expected to cut greenhouse-gas emissions while remaining competitive. NRPCES treats carbon as a first-class input to maintenance strategy, not an afterthought added after the budget is already set.

What the project delivers

Tools and knowledge that owners can use after the research period ends.

  • A digital decision-support platform for replacement timing and CO₂ visualisation
  • Use-case dashboards tested with partners in Sweden, Belgium, and Portugal
  • Methods, publications, and workshops that other organisations can learn from

Sustainability goals

Keep assets in productive use for longer, and replace them only when it is the better environmental choice.

  • Encourage circular practice: repair and refurbish before premature replacement
  • Close resource loops by timing replacement against both cost and carbon
  • Contribute to Fit for 55: at least 55% greenhouse-gas reduction by 2030
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Co-funded by

NORTE 2030 PORTUGAL 2030 Cofinanciado pela União Europeia VINNOVA — Sweden’s Innovation Agency innoviris.brussels