The Interreg Sudoe REMAIN project is present this week at MICAM Milano, one of the leading international events for the footwear industry, taking place in Milan from 13 to 15 September. Participation in the trade fair provides an opportunity to present the project’s objectives and progress to companies and industry professionals, highlighting its commitment to robotics, remanufacturing and the circular economy as key tools for moving towards a more sustainable industry.
Once again, MICAM Milano is serving as an international meeting point for the footwear industry, bringing together more than 1,000 brands and around 20,000 professional visitors. Against this backdrop, the project continues to strengthen the dissemination of its activities and results among companies and key industry stakeholders.
The Spanish Footwear Industries Federation (FICE), a beneficiary partner of the project, is raising awareness of REMAIN during the trade fair, presenting its main areas of work and the progress achieved by the consortium to companies and professionals.
REMAIN aims to integrate remanufacturing into the business models of traditional manufacturing sectors, particularly the footwear industry, by combining advanced robotics, artificial intelligence and perception systems to facilitate damage detection and the recovery of products at the end of their useful life.
REMAIN’s presence at MICAM provides an opportunity to bring these advances directly to industry and raise awareness of the potential of remanufacturing to extend product lifespans, reduce resource consumption and create new business opportunities linked to the circular economy.
This is not the first time that REMAIN has used this international showcase to engage with the industry. The project has already been present at previous editions of MICAM, where FICE introduced the initiative to companies and professional visitors. Its participation in the September 2026 edition therefore reinforces a dissemination strategy aimed at bringing the project’s results closer to companies and encouraging their future uptake by the sector.
The development of REMAIN has been made possible through the joint efforts of a European consortium coordinated by Inescop and comprising the Universities of Zaragoza, Alicante and Coimbra , as well as Clermont Auvergne INP; the Federation of Spanish Footwear Industries (FICE); industrial partners SMA-RTY and Automática y Control Numérico (ACN); and the AIDA CCI Chamber of Commerce, with the collaboration of the social association Proyecto Lázaro.
The project is co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Interreg Sudoe Programme, project reference S1/1.1/E0111.