Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MEZeroE (Measuring Envelope products and systems contributing to next generation of healthy nearly Zero Energy Buildings)
Reporting period: 2021-01-01 to 2022-07-31
Buildings account for a very large portion of the overall energy consumption and related CO2 emissions. Building envelopes are both the boundary and the connection point between indoor and outdoor environments, and offer significant opportunities to make buildings more comfortable, healthy, and energy efficient. However, innovation uptake in construction industry is often too slow for many reasons such as lack of confidence in new technical solutions, complex regulations and certifications, and dated business models and approaches.
To tackle these issues and hence having more sustainable buildings that will contribute to a more sustainable future for the society, it is essential to make the innovation process in construction industry faster and deeper at the same time. This means supporting the conception of new envelope solutions, their comprehensive testing and analysis, and their full and timely exploitation.
Thus, MEzeroE aims at connecting small, medium, and also larger enterprises active in the building envelope industry (and related fields) with research institutions that can support them in the different open-innovation phases, namely discovery, empowerment, and exploitation. The final scope is bringing innovative, effective, and well-evaluated products to the market as fast as possible.
To tackle these issues and hence having more sustainable buildings that will contribute to a more sustainable future for the society, it is essential to make the innovation process in construction industry faster and deeper at the same time. This means supporting the conception of new envelope solutions, their comprehensive testing and analysis, and their full and timely exploitation.
Thus, MEzeroE aims at connecting small, medium, and also larger enterprises active in the building envelope industry (and related fields) with research institutions that can support them in the different open-innovation phases, namely discovery, empowerment, and exploitation. The final scope is bringing innovative, effective, and well-evaluated products to the market as fast as possible.
MEZeroE started at the very beginning of 2021, and most of the efforts focused on the creation of the services that will be offered to the envelope industry, and on setting the basis for the virtual market place that will operate as single entry point of MEZeroE ecosystem. The initial offer will comprise 9 pilot measurement and verification lines (PM&VLs), 3 open innovation services (OISs), and the living lab (LL).
PM&VLs are test-chains focused on a specific performance or technology to support the development and performance characterisation of envelope products by means of experimental measurements and modelling. OISs offer combinations of tools and methods to address a specific transversal topic (e.g. CE marking, indoor environmental measurements in real buildings, and open innovation uptake). The LL comprises both a community and real buildings occupied by real people, but equipped with enough embedded sensors to measure the relevant parameters and thus enable real-use envelope performance analysis. PM&VLs and OISs are developed by project partners, while the call for selection the real-buildings as LL is currently open.
PM&VLs are test-chains focused on a specific performance or technology to support the development and performance characterisation of envelope products by means of experimental measurements and modelling. OISs offer combinations of tools and methods to address a specific transversal topic (e.g. CE marking, indoor environmental measurements in real buildings, and open innovation uptake). The LL comprises both a community and real buildings occupied by real people, but equipped with enough embedded sensors to measure the relevant parameters and thus enable real-use envelope performance analysis. PM&VLs and OISs are developed by project partners, while the call for selection the real-buildings as LL is currently open.
In the building envelope industry, the current offer of testing and additional services is fragmented. Companies often use personal contacts or generic search engine to identify a potentially suitable research partner, if any. However, both channels have major shortcomings. The former typically enables to reach only a very limited of labs and institutions. The latter is likely to be very time-consuming because each testing provider presents their offer in a different way, there is too little beyond self-claimed skills and experience, and each provider (universities, research institutions, etc) works completely independently (thus, if one cannot offer all needed tests, the process must be repeated multiple times).
By the end of MEZeroE, a multi-side virtual marketplace will be fully operative as single entry point (SEP), and it will offer testing and development capabilities (via the PM&VLs), additional services (via the OISs), and real-life demonstrations (via the LL) for cutting-edge envelope solutions.
By the end of MEZeroE, a multi-side virtual marketplace will be fully operative as single entry point (SEP), and it will offer testing and development capabilities (via the PM&VLs), additional services (via the OISs), and real-life demonstrations (via the LL) for cutting-edge envelope solutions.