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Pilot Program Overview

🚧Evolving Knowledge Base

The RBTP Knowledge Base is evolving weekly as part of our pilot programs with RBA members. We’d love your input — submit feedback or help shape the protocol in real time by joining a pilot.

Why Are We Building Pilots?​

Introducing a new framework like RBTP requires more than just deploying technology—it demands mindset shifts, new processes, and alignment across supply chain partners, customers, regulators, and auditors. RBA members must see firsthand how RBTP delivers value and integrates into their existing business systems before committing fully.

Pilots offer a low-commitment way to test and learn. They help members answer questions such as:

  • “How can I verify the mass balance of all input materials in the cobalt I’m purchasing?”
  • “How can I confirm that the tantalum in an electrical component is produced free of conflict?”

Equally important, pilots inform RBA about how best to support members—whether that means refining RBTP credentials and product passports, adjusting initiative scopes, or influencing the broader UNTP program structure. They may even uncover opportunities for RBA to offer value-added digital services around RBTP adoption.

Several Phase 1 pilots have already been delivered to address specific use cases. Visit the Pilot Library to see if any of these projects answer your key questions.

Who Should Participate?​

RBA members should consider joining a pilot if they:

  • Are tackling an immediate ESG, regulatory, or buyer-driven reporting challenge
  • Need to validate viability or feasibility before committing to deeper integrations
  • Require expert UNTP protocol support to develop detailed technical pilots or integrations
  • Wish to influence RBTP standards and tools ahead of full rollout

How the RBTP Pilot Program Works​

The RBTP pilot program is organized as a four-phase maturity model, giving you a flexible menu of options. Each phase produces a tangible deliverable, and you can start, pause, or advance at any time. For example, you might address a specific question in a Phase 1 pilot and then jump straight to a Phase 4 adoption, or you can build confidence step-by-step by completing all four phases. The path you choose is entirely up to you.

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  • Phase 1 - building understanding: Use the reference implementation, table-top exercises and value illumination workshops to simulate early versions of credentials in a hypothetical workflow through several steps. Members will sponsor pilots that contribute to the shared reference implementation for reuse by other members.
  • Phase 2 - proving viability: Generating real facility credentials in reference implementation tools and/or Open Supply Hub to simulate a facility-level trust chain with hand-picked upstream actors through manual transmission of credentials between actors. Credentials can be tested against real regulatory requirements.
  • Phase 3 – proving feasibility: Generating and issuing real credentials through OSH to real facilities that generate product passports using the reference implementation or lightweight systems, passing them to customers within existing business systems through light-weight integrations or parallel temporary solutions.
  • Phase 4 – enterprise scaling: Production integration of RBTP/UNTP into business systems in a small but scalable manner, for a small number of products or supply chains, with a pathway to adoption across supply chains and broader business processes.

Register your interest​

The RBTP program is recruiting participants for Phase 1 and 2 pilots now. If you’d like to start a pilot, register your interest here.