Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Exploit4InnoMat (An Open Innovation Ecosystem for exploitation of materials for building envelopes towards zero energy buildings)
Reporting period: 2023-01-01 to 2024-06-30
The Exploit4InnoMat OITB (or Ecosystem) aspires to provide a sustainable solution across Europe for the design, upscaling and validation of new material concepts for the building envelope that will facilitate in the achievement of the EC target for nZEB. The Exploit4InnoMat will provide services across the supply chain of materials, starting from the design and upscaling of them, and going to installation, validation and assessment of scenarios for the end of life. The core of the Exploit4InnoMat is the 8 Pilot Lines, situated in 7 EU countries, able to process different type of advance and/or nano-enabled multifunctional materials, including sorting and processing of construction and demolition wastes (CDW) to be used as secondary raw materials. The target is to develop sustainable materials and products that not only will reduce the operational energy demand (e.g. by providing better insulation properties, reducing thermal bridges, and harvesting or storage of energy) but will be also of lower embodied energy (e.g. due to the use of CDW or other secondary raw materials and optimize their production process), providing a healthier and more comfortable indoor environment (thermal comfort, cleaner air). In order to achieve this target a wide range of expertise has been brought to the OITB covering fields such as materials characterization and modelling, monitoring and process control, environmental and assessment, regulatory and standardization, social acceptance and innovation management.
The Exploit4InnoMat OITB will provide its services through a Single Entry Point (SEP), a new legal entity, (joint venture) that will be founded at month 12 of the project. The SEP will undertake the whole administrative effort for signing contracts on behalf of the OITB members with its clients. In this way, a one stop shop will be formed, facilitating the access of the clients to the Pilot Lines and the other services of the OITB. The Exploit4InnoMat OITB targets in strengthening the cooperation between various stakeholders (e.g. technology and service providers, SME, Large enterprises) and develop new business models for the construction sector, based on Open Innovation Philosophy.
The Exploit4InnoMat project focuses on the development of a sustainable open innovation test bed (OITB) consisting of 6 Groups of services offered to SMEs or Industry. The first Group contains the 8 pilot plants distributed across Europe (Norway, Sweden, Germany, Spain, Greece, Italy and Belgium) dedicated to the development of materials and components for building’s envelope. The other five groups will offer technical and non-technical services (e.g. materials characterization and modelling, validation of products in living hubs, regulatory and standardization consultancy and innovation management) supporting the Pilot Lines.
The Exploit4InnoMat OITB will provide its services through a Single Entry Point (SEP), a new legal entity, (joint venture) that will be founded at month 12 of the project. The SEP will undertake the whole administrative effort for signing contracts on behalf of the OITB members with its clients. In this way, a one stop shop will be formed, facilitating the access of the clients to the Pilot Lines and the other services of the OITB. The Exploit4InnoMat OITB targets in strengthening the cooperation between various stakeholders (e.g. technology and service providers, SME, Large enterprises) and develop new business models for the construction sector, based on Open Innovation Philosophy.
The Exploit4InnoMat project focuses on the development of a sustainable open innovation test bed (OITB) consisting of 6 Groups of services offered to SMEs or Industry. The first Group contains the 8 pilot plants distributed across Europe (Norway, Sweden, Germany, Spain, Greece, Italy and Belgium) dedicated to the development of materials and components for building’s envelope. The other five groups will offer technical and non-technical services (e.g. materials characterization and modelling, validation of products in living hubs, regulatory and standardization consultancy and innovation management) supporting the Pilot Lines.
During the first 18 months, significant progress towards achieving Exploit4Innomat Objectives was achieved. The main achievements can be summarized:
Setting up the OITB. During this period, the basis for the creation of the OITB were set, primarily by the decision of the consortium to collaborate with Lightcoce company, thus utilizing the existing organizational, administrative and operational structure. It was identified that certain modifications would be needed, therefore actions towards achieving these modifications were taken. The Framework agreement, meaning the document that will link Exploit4Innomat partners with the OITB was created based on Lightcoce existing documents and shared with the rest of the partners for review of the legal terms. The statute of Lightcoce company was modified so that it could serve Exploit4Innomat needs, including identifying a new name for the new entity (Exploit4Light). The confirmation of the revised statute is pending, needing the acceptance of Ligthcoce shareholders for the proposed changes. The IPR issues were discussed and will be taken into account into all legal documents. An Exploit4innomat platform was created, nevertheless the project will also take advantage of the already deployed and validated Lightcoce SEP. Regarding the operational and administrative processes of the OITB, the new entity will follow the already established Lightcoce company processes with respect to the Greek law provisions. However, additional bodies (e.g. a Technical committee) will be established in which members from all Exploit4Innomat partners will participate, facilitating the operational procedures of the new entity.
Setting up the technical services. In parallel with the activities that took place for the establishment of the OITB, activities for the setting up of the technical services of ecosystem were realized.
- Pilot lines: The PLs identified their needs in equipment in order to upgrade their services either in production capacity and in quality of products (monitoring), therefore for the vast majority of the PLs an upgrade plan was realized. The PLs then proceeded in realized the identified modifications by ordering the necessary equipment and proceeding to their installation plan. Concerning the test cases that each PL was responsible, the specifications and requirements were identified, a work plan was created and up to month 18 the majority of the test cases were implemented according to the workplan.
-Validation sites: The capacity of each Lighthouse and of the demo building were identified and based on them and the nature of Exploit4Innomat materials, the allocation of materials to LH and demo was performed. The characteristic properties for evaluation in real environment for each of the materials was also defined, and based on these information the demonstration plan for each of the LHs and the demo building has started to be formulated.
-Characterisation & Environmental assessment services, Modelling services, Regulatory/ Standardisation services, Innovation management services: The mapping of Exploit4Innomat capacities was performed and the collaboration pathways with the other services were identified. The development plan for this service was also formulated.
Increase of the visibility of Exploit4Innomat. (Web page, Dissemination plan, dissemination activities, clustering activities
Establishing the validation of the ecosystem. The validation of the ecosystem will be performed through the Open call that will be launched in the coming months. During this period all the preparatory activities were realized, the plan for the open call launching was updated and the main post-launching activities were identified. Issues with respect to IPR issues were also discussed and taken into account.
Establishing a strategy for the ecosystem’s sustainability. (Business plan)
Setting up the OITB. During this period, the basis for the creation of the OITB were set, primarily by the decision of the consortium to collaborate with Lightcoce company, thus utilizing the existing organizational, administrative and operational structure. It was identified that certain modifications would be needed, therefore actions towards achieving these modifications were taken. The Framework agreement, meaning the document that will link Exploit4Innomat partners with the OITB was created based on Lightcoce existing documents and shared with the rest of the partners for review of the legal terms. The statute of Lightcoce company was modified so that it could serve Exploit4Innomat needs, including identifying a new name for the new entity (Exploit4Light). The confirmation of the revised statute is pending, needing the acceptance of Ligthcoce shareholders for the proposed changes. The IPR issues were discussed and will be taken into account into all legal documents. An Exploit4innomat platform was created, nevertheless the project will also take advantage of the already deployed and validated Lightcoce SEP. Regarding the operational and administrative processes of the OITB, the new entity will follow the already established Lightcoce company processes with respect to the Greek law provisions. However, additional bodies (e.g. a Technical committee) will be established in which members from all Exploit4Innomat partners will participate, facilitating the operational procedures of the new entity.
Setting up the technical services. In parallel with the activities that took place for the establishment of the OITB, activities for the setting up of the technical services of ecosystem were realized.
- Pilot lines: The PLs identified their needs in equipment in order to upgrade their services either in production capacity and in quality of products (monitoring), therefore for the vast majority of the PLs an upgrade plan was realized. The PLs then proceeded in realized the identified modifications by ordering the necessary equipment and proceeding to their installation plan. Concerning the test cases that each PL was responsible, the specifications and requirements were identified, a work plan was created and up to month 18 the majority of the test cases were implemented according to the workplan.
-Validation sites: The capacity of each Lighthouse and of the demo building were identified and based on them and the nature of Exploit4Innomat materials, the allocation of materials to LH and demo was performed. The characteristic properties for evaluation in real environment for each of the materials was also defined, and based on these information the demonstration plan for each of the LHs and the demo building has started to be formulated.
-Characterisation & Environmental assessment services, Modelling services, Regulatory/ Standardisation services, Innovation management services: The mapping of Exploit4Innomat capacities was performed and the collaboration pathways with the other services were identified. The development plan for this service was also formulated.
Increase of the visibility of Exploit4Innomat. (Web page, Dissemination plan, dissemination activities, clustering activities
Establishing the validation of the ecosystem. The validation of the ecosystem will be performed through the Open call that will be launched in the coming months. During this period all the preparatory activities were realized, the plan for the open call launching was updated and the main post-launching activities were identified. Issues with respect to IPR issues were also discussed and taken into account.
Establishing a strategy for the ecosystem’s sustainability. (Business plan)
With respect to the new materials that will be developed in Exploit4Innomat, almost all the test cases (with the exception of smart windows) proceeded to the development of innovative materials according to the standards set in the proposal. Until M18, the majority of the products reported success towards achieving the majority of the initial specifications set for their product, but in some case the optimization of the materials is still on going.