Measuring Envelope products and systems contributing to next generation of healthy nearly Zero Energy Buildings

Project Information

MEZeroE

Grant agreement ID: 953157

DOI

10.3030/953157

EC signature date 2 December 2020

Start date 1 January 2021

End date 31 July 2026

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Advanced materials

Total cost

€ 17 074 860,11

EU contribution

€ 14 728 371,75

Coordinated by

ACCADEMIA EUROPEA DI BOLZANO
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - MEZeroE (Measuring Envelope products and systems contributing to next generation of healthy nearly Zero Energy Buildings)

Reporting period: 2024-02-01 to 2025-01-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

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.

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

MEZeroE started at the very beginning of 2021. Efforts have been made for the creation of the services that to be offered to the envelope industry, and on setting up the platform (https://www.mezeroe-platform.eu/) that is expected to become the gateway to the MEZeroE ecosystem and open innovation test bed (OITB). The initial offer comprises 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. The former are led by one research partner, while the latter have leading partners but include different subservices that are offered by multiple partners. Real-buildings as LLs have been recruited by means of open call whose purpose is to find the most suitable building-technology match.

To ensure the long-term sustainability of the OITB a managing entity is under development. This will be an association composed by those offering PM&VLs and OISs whose premier purpose will be the management of the OITB including its long-term strategy to remain relevant and high-quality and its financial self-sustainability to be able to operate beyond the end of the project funds.

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)

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).

MEZeroE OITB is now fully operative and accessible with the dedicate platform, and offers 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. The association under development will ensure its long-term sustainability.

MEZeroE Manifesto

MEZeroE website