Intelligent UK Supply Chains Network Plus

The UK government has set out a strategy to enhance our national security – virtually and physically - and strengthening the UK’s resilience to a rapidly changing world. This has reached new levels of urgency in the wake of repeated systematic shocks from financial crisis the Covid 19pandemic, climate emergency and conventional armed conflict. In particular, the UK’s food, fashion and critical minerals supply chains have suffered from these systemic issues and experienced: shortages of semi-conductor chips, construction materials, synthetic fibres, and dyes; gaps on supermarket shelves; and delivery delay, among others. It is vital we understand the potential risks to UK supply chains, how they might cascade through supply chain tiers and the interventions that might be needed to increase their resiliency. The UK has the breadth and depth of research, innovation and technological capabilities to model supply chains as complex systems and harness the power of data and scenario modelling to identify cascading risks in food, critical minerals, and fashion supply chains, the associated impacts and trade-offs across the environment, economy, security and society. However, this knowledge and expertise is currently siloed within academic institutions and disciplines. It is vital the UK innovation ecosystem works in partnership and takes a truly multidisciplinary approach to proactively address systemic issues and accelerate impact for the UK.