Expertise
AI, standards, stakeholder processes
Contribution
Brings applied AI expertise, standardisation leadership and experience translating complex technology for authorities and industry.
Making every physical product
uniquely identifiable.
The systems identifying physical products were never designed for what we're now asking them to do.
Yet regulation, digitalisation and circularity increasingly depend on trusted product identity.
The challenge is no longer just identifying a product. It's knowing the physical product is what it claims to be.
03
Pillars of Value-Adding Unique Product Identification
Explore the physical-digital gap
VUPI focuses on unique, machine-readable product marking that reliably connects an individual physical product with its digital identity.
What comprises unique, machine-readable product marking?
[ 01 ]
Unique by Design
Digitalisation at the level of the individual product requires an identity that distinguishes one physical product from another, not simply one model, product type or batch from another.
[ 02 ]
Machine Readable
Product identity must be reliably readable across products, industries and use cases. New approaches, including AI-based reading of complex physical characteristics, expand capabilities.
[ 03 ]
Built on Trust
Identification becomes secure when a product's identity can be verified. As physical products are increasingly connected, the integrity of that connection becomes increasingly important.
The Challenge
The physical-digital identity gap.
We are building increasingly sophisticated digital identities for products. But every digital identity ultimately depends on its connection to something physical.
Digital platforms and data infrastructures are increasingly sophisticated, while less attention is given to the product mark itself: the machine-readable connection between an individual physical product and its digital identity.
VUPI works at that point of connection.
Why now?
Product identity is becoming infrastructure.
Explore the opportunity
Regulation, technology and industrial digitalisation are converging.
Reliable and trusted product identity is becoming critical infrastructure.
[ 01 ]
Regulation is Accelerating
European requirements including the Digital Product Passport, Unique Device Identification and pharmaceutical serialisation increase the importance of unique product identification, machine-readable data carriers and traceability.
[ 02 ]
Technology is Advancing
AI-based recognition of complex physical patterns and other smartphone-based technologies are creating new possibilities for persistent, machine-readable physical identity.
[ 03 ]
Standards Need to Keep Pace
Future-ready, open approaches are needed to bridge regulatory ambition, industrial requirements and emerging technical possibilities.
Identity should create value, not just compliance.
Unique product identity can do more than satisfy regulatory requirements. It can provide the foundation for industrial digitalisation, AI-enabled process optimisation, circular business models, product lifecycle services and new interactions between manufacturers, products and users.
VUPI explores how unique, machine-readable product marking can move from a compliance requirement to value-creating infrastructure.
Independent by structure. Collaborative by design.
VUPI, Value-Creating Unique Product Identity, is an independent think tank bringing together expertise across industry, research, standardisation, law and technology.
Our focus is deliberately narrow: the product mark itself and its machine reading. We develop practical knowledge and good practice without advocating for a particular commercial technology.
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Members
Expertise across the system.
VUPI brings together expertise across industry, research, standardisation, law and technology. We show current affiliations for transparency and disclose relevant interests where appropriate.
Expertise
Digital regulation, AI, product compliance
Contribution
Brings legal definitions, regulatory intent and practical compliance perspectives to product marking and digital product identity.
Expertise
Data carriers, UDI/MDR, supply chains
Contribution
Brings hands-on expertise in product marking, healthcare identification and the deployment of standards in real supply chains.
Expertise
Design, circularity, Digital Product Passport
Contribution
Brings the design and industry perspective on turning product-marking requirements into circular value and strong user experiences.
Secretary
Thomas Just Sørensen, PhD
Professor, University of Copenhagen
Founder & CSO, PUFIN-ID
Expertise
Product-marking innovation, research, standardisation
Contribution
Brings scientific research and practical experience from inventing and developing next-generation product-marking technologies.
Current professional affiliations are shown for transparency. VUPI members contribute in an expert capacity to the think tank's work.