Building and renovating by exploiting advanced materials for energy and resources efficient management (IA)

Building envelopes and renovation materials that boost energy savings, save resources and decrease carbon emissions, both during construction and operation of the buildings. In view of the climate targets, Europe's building infrastructure needs a deep rehabilitation of residential buildings (including buildings of historic value) while lowering the costs of refurbishment. Building materials with adequate insulation properties are directly related to the Green Deal and the well-being of our citizens.

Proposals should address and demonstrate several of the below activities:

• Demonstrating that new insulation materials (not external cladding) will have reduced embodied energy, lower CO₂ emissions and improved insulation properties during operation, and are cost effective, environmentally safe, fire resistant and can be easily applied on existing surfaces (e.g. spray coating);
• New components should also contribute to improve indoor air quality, by limiting VOCs emissions and/or by advanced properties aiming to absorb and biodegrade indoor contaminants;
• Enhanced durability for increased use duration, reduced maintenance and consequently reduced costs, respect of sustainability principles (the sustainability of each developed solution should be evaluated via life cycle assessment studies carried out according to the International Reference Life Cycle Data System - ILCD Handbook);
• New components should have to be lightweight construction with an ease of installation and provide for increased comfort and noise reduction, and find application to both new build and renovation and deliver realistic solutions at a reasonable price;
• Energy efficiency should be addressed by system integration and installation, exploiting synergies between technologies, which proved valid at a small scale and need a larger scale demonstration;
• Synergy with existing relevant Open Innovation Test Beds is encouraged;
• Clustering and cooperation with other relevant projects is strongly encouraged; in particular, liaison and synergies with the Horizon Europe Partnership on ‘People-centric sustainable built environment’ and Build4People.

Building materials with adequate insulation properties are directly related to the Green Deal and the well-being of our citizens.

Proposals submitted under this topic should include a business case and exploitation strategy, as outlined in the introduction to this Destination.

The topic is open for international cooperation, while excluding industrial competitors from countries where the safeguarding of IPRs cannot be guaranteed[[SWD(2021)97 final, Report on the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights in third countries (2021)]]