Agile and Flexible Construction Materials Standardization for Boosting the Twin Transition

Project Information

AFCOS

Grant agreement ID: 101135855

DOI

10.3030/101135855

Project closed

EC signature date 21 October 2023

Start date 1 November 2023

End date 31 October 2025

Funded under

• Digital, Industry and Space

Total cost

No data

EU contribution

€ 973 746,25

Coordinated by

KLIYNTEH BULGARIA
Bulgaria

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - AFCOS (Agile and Flexible Construction Materials Standardization for Boosting the Twin Transition)

Reporting period: 2024-11-01 to 2025-10-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Over the past decade, standardization has become a decisive factor in Europe’s ability to advance the twin transition, strengthen competitiveness, and ensure technological sovereignty. The EU Standardization Strategy 2030 reinforces these ambitions by calling for a European standardization system that is faster, more innovation-friendly, more resilient, and capable of supporting industrial transformation and strategic value chains. In the construction sector - one of Europe’s largest and most resource-intensive industries, new products and technologies are emerging at a pace that requires more agile and anticipatory standardization pathways.
Within this strategic context, the “Agile and Flexible Construction Materials Standardization for Boosting the Twin Transition” (AFCOS) project was launched to reinforce the role of standardization as a driver for decarbonisation, digitalisation, circularity, and improved market access for innovative construction products. AFCOS focuses on identified standardization urgencies within the industrial ecosystem of construction and more specifically on standards supporting the following product groups: (1) low carbon cement and low carbon cement-based products (concrete, mortar, grout, etc.); (2) bio-based products for the insulation of the buildings’ envelope.
Building on a set of activities combining research work with stakeholder engagement, educational activities and ambitious exploitation initiatives, AFCOS strengthens Europe’s ability to respond to future industrial needs and contributes to a modernized standardization ecosystem that supports climate neutrality, innovation uptake, and long-term competitiveness.
AFCOS is funded by the European Union Horizon Europe Programme under Grant Agreement 101135855 and brings together 7 full and 5 associated partners from 9 EU countries encompassing research capacity, standardization expertise and industry representation and ecosystem actors, ensuring EU coverage and exploitability of the project results to a high level.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

One of the AFCOS main strengths was the broad stakeholder engagement throughout the whole project duration – external experts from government, academia and industry have been engaged together with European and National standardization bodies. They have been actively involved to share their insights and constructive feedback on the AFCOS deliverables ensuring their alignment with current market needs, strategies and policies in place:
1. The “Methodology for co-design of roadmaps” fully reflects the AFCOS stakeholder engagement approach making it applicable also to other projects and contexts beyond standardization where research findings have to be applied for the purposes of process design and strategic development;
2. 2 Roadmaps: “Standardization as enabler of innovation uptake in the new construction products field” and “Capacity building in standardization of new construction products as a booster of new knowledge in industry” serve to clearly present the pathways to both: application of flexible standardization pathways for innovative products and skills development in standardization;
3. 2 training courses addressing the skills gaps in standardization are developed and available on a dedicated openly accessible Moodle platform as well as on the STAND4EU portal and the EDU4Standards Teaching Repositories;
4. The “Strategy for education and skills development in the field of standardization” aims to ensure the long-term impact and transferability of the AFCOS training approach;
5. The “Whitepaper on flexible standardization pathways for new construction products” provides strategic recommendations to standardization bodies, policy makers and regulators, industry actors, service providers and R&I organizations, educational and training providers based on the overall conclusions from the project.
An AFCOS “Transferability and scalability model” was developed with the aim to expand the reach of the project outcomes and ensure long-term sustainability through their exploitation on European level.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The AFCOS project delivered results that go beyond the project lifetime by introducing a new evidence-based and innovation-oriented approach to standardization in the construction sector.
The project’s most significant advancement is the Whitepaper introducing a new conceptual framework for “flexible standardization pathways” - a set of adaptable, innovation-friendly mechanisms supporting faster uptake of sustainable construction products. It synthesizes the project’s findings into a clear set of recommendations for European and National standardization bodies, regulators, industry, education and research communities. The Whitepaper outlines how anticipatory pre-normative research, modular standardization routes, enhanced stakeholder involvement, and targeted capacity building can shorten time-to-standard, improve innovation readiness, and strengthen Europe’s strategic autonomy in sustainable construction materials.
The AFCOS approach directly improves the position of standardization as an enabler of innovation deployment and commercialization in Europe and the capacity of the industrial ecosystem on how to use standards in support to innovation. This will, in return, result in sustainable, high-quality jobs performed by skilled workforce being able to drive the twin transition.

20231124-111511.jpg