Periodic Reporting for period 1 - METABUILDING LABS (METAclustered, SME oriented European Open Innovation Test Bed for the BUILDING envelope materials industrial sector using a harmonised and upgraded technical framework and living LABS)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2021-01-01 al 2022-06-30
The METABUILDING LABS project is a five-year Horizon 2020 EU funded Innovation project whose main objective is to unlock potential, improve competitiveness and boost market impacts of the European construction sector’s small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) offering an Open Innovation Test Bed (OITB). Through a Single Entry Point, which is reflected in an Open Innovation Digital Platform (metabuilding.com) SMEs will have access to a powerful innovation ecosystem with more than 100 testing facilities across 12 EU countries : AUSTRIA · BELGIUM · FRANCE · GERMANY · HUNGARY · IRELAND · ITALY · POLAND · LUXEMBOURG · SPAIN · SWEDEN · TURKEY. A large consortium of 40 partners across 13 countries have joined forces to provide the whole construction sector with easy access to this wide network of high value testing facilities including Laboratories, Test Benches, Pilot Buildings, Living LABS and innovative services allowing stakeholders to develop and test their innovations and building envelope solutions for next generation buildings.
The METABUILDING LABS OITB can leverage on the innovation ecosystem that has being kickstarted and set-up in its sister project METABUILDING (INNOSUP H2020)and advertise its services on the METABUILDING digital multi-sided platform which is conceived as the meeting point of the innovation ecosystem for the enlarged built environment sector bringing together innovation actors, clusters and platforms on regional, national and European level. Especially, the integration of regional clusters is an important feature to reach potential clients, notably SMEs. Both projects make a proactive use of the metaclustering and innovation ecosystem concepts to disseminate and relay the OITB offer. metabuilding.com platform will be the ubiquitous digital backbone for the enlarged built environment EU innovation ecosystem, including cross-sectoral representation and backed by several EU high-level industrial platforms like notably ECTP (European Construction Technology Platform), European Aluminium (the association representing the EU aluminium industry) and other entities partner of METABUILDING.
In order to reach the COP21 goal of nearly-zero energy, zero emission buildings, which is essential for climate change mitigation and adaption, sustainable building solutions are required. To boost the rather slow-paced innovation and unleash the full potential of innovation in construction, it is crucial to strengthen SMEs as one of the most important innovation motors.
To achieve this aim, various specific objectives have been defined for the project:
• Build a future-proof, upgradable, competitive, sustainable, and inclusive European Construction Sector Innovation Ecosystem and OITB network.
• Stimulate investments in building-envelope innovations and new technologies by providing test beds evidence on material and system performance for companies and investors.
• Contribute to the enhancement of technical and environmental quality of building products in Europe, by providing innovation support to technology developers.
• Unlock the potential of SMEs by providing access to prototyping, testing and certification services and infrastructures, in order to improve the quality of new products and solutions.
• Test user acceptance and environmental requirements of products and co-develop solutions implementing a “pilots as Living Labs” strategy
• To fully implement a metaclustering approach in the 12 countries represented in the METABUILDING LABS project as the pro-active solution of how to bring SMEs into the OITB ecosystem
• To harmonize and upgrade lab test framework and facilities in a holistic set of adapted services for a better readability of envelope materials; technical characterisation adapted to the new smart generation of technologies.
• To develop a standardized, high quality, fast, affordable, replicable, Open Source, Open Access, Open Data 1:1 scale, real conditions building envelope testbed.
The METABUILDING LABS OITB can leverage on the innovation ecosystem that has being kickstarted and set-up in its sister project METABUILDING (INNOSUP H2020)and advertise its services on the METABUILDING digital multi-sided platform which is conceived as the meeting point of the innovation ecosystem for the enlarged built environment sector bringing together innovation actors, clusters and platforms on regional, national and European level. Especially, the integration of regional clusters is an important feature to reach potential clients, notably SMEs. Both projects make a proactive use of the metaclustering and innovation ecosystem concepts to disseminate and relay the OITB offer. metabuilding.com platform will be the ubiquitous digital backbone for the enlarged built environment EU innovation ecosystem, including cross-sectoral representation and backed by several EU high-level industrial platforms like notably ECTP (European Construction Technology Platform), European Aluminium (the association representing the EU aluminium industry) and other entities partner of METABUILDING.
In order to reach the COP21 goal of nearly-zero energy, zero emission buildings, which is essential for climate change mitigation and adaption, sustainable building solutions are required. To boost the rather slow-paced innovation and unleash the full potential of innovation in construction, it is crucial to strengthen SMEs as one of the most important innovation motors.
To achieve this aim, various specific objectives have been defined for the project:
• Build a future-proof, upgradable, competitive, sustainable, and inclusive European Construction Sector Innovation Ecosystem and OITB network.
• Stimulate investments in building-envelope innovations and new technologies by providing test beds evidence on material and system performance for companies and investors.
• Contribute to the enhancement of technical and environmental quality of building products in Europe, by providing innovation support to technology developers.
• Unlock the potential of SMEs by providing access to prototyping, testing and certification services and infrastructures, in order to improve the quality of new products and solutions.
• Test user acceptance and environmental requirements of products and co-develop solutions implementing a “pilots as Living Labs” strategy
• To fully implement a metaclustering approach in the 12 countries represented in the METABUILDING LABS project as the pro-active solution of how to bring SMEs into the OITB ecosystem
• To harmonize and upgrade lab test framework and facilities in a holistic set of adapted services for a better readability of envelope materials; technical characterisation adapted to the new smart generation of technologies.
• To develop a standardized, high quality, fast, affordable, replicable, Open Source, Open Access, Open Data 1:1 scale, real conditions building envelope testbed.
The first period of the METABUILDING LABS project was characterised by:
• the expansion of the innovation ecosystem of the sister METABUILDING project (INNOSUP) where the OITB has testing infrastructures resulting to more than 1900 organizations from 13 countries,
• the definition of specific national recommendations through 12 action plans to inform the most representative entities about Metaclustering and the advantages of create or structure National Construction Technology Platforms,
• the definition of the first boundaries of the SEP (Single Entry Point) and its technical/organisational requirements,
• the main concepts definition establishing an initial operating and business model and defining the legal entity and governing structure of the SEP,
• the development of outcome-oriented communication materials and conduct related activities as initial step for raising awareness about the services of the OITB to bring new clients,
• the elicitation of the needs and requirements of the various stakeholders of the OITB, ranging from the SME clients to the members of the association, including the testing facility and technical service providers to establish the legal, business and technical processes in the specifications and to define a roadmap to build up and improve the offer of the OITB to best suit market and R&I needs,
• the listing of current EU & national regulations on building envelope and the build of the METABUILDING LABS OITB catalogue of testing infrastructures that will be related to market requirements to identify and develop a series of acquisition of new infrastructures or upgrading of existing in most of the RTOs of the OITB network, allowing to further reinforce the catalogue,
• the adaptation of the TRL scale for the construction sector as a way to best structure the OITB technical offer and improve its legibility,
• the definition of the METABUILDING LABS digital services modules and their requirements to be integrated in the METABUILDING platfom,
• the design of an innovative testing facility that will be replicated across Europe as an Open-Acess, Open-Data, Open-Source Building Envelope Testbed (O3BET), resulting to a first delivered version of the O3BET,
• the launch of activities to allow an optimal exploitation and to ease the overall management of the O3BET,
• the definition of five innovative technologies concepts for building envelope that will benefit from the METABUILDING LABS services and expertise until they reach the exploitation phase and they reached the market,
• the definition of a “pilots as Living Labs” strategy to test innovative envelope technologies developed in METABUILDING LABS on real buildings in order to reach TRL 7 through demonstration in operational environment.
• the expansion of the innovation ecosystem of the sister METABUILDING project (INNOSUP) where the OITB has testing infrastructures resulting to more than 1900 organizations from 13 countries,
• the definition of specific national recommendations through 12 action plans to inform the most representative entities about Metaclustering and the advantages of create or structure National Construction Technology Platforms,
• the definition of the first boundaries of the SEP (Single Entry Point) and its technical/organisational requirements,
• the main concepts definition establishing an initial operating and business model and defining the legal entity and governing structure of the SEP,
• the development of outcome-oriented communication materials and conduct related activities as initial step for raising awareness about the services of the OITB to bring new clients,
• the elicitation of the needs and requirements of the various stakeholders of the OITB, ranging from the SME clients to the members of the association, including the testing facility and technical service providers to establish the legal, business and technical processes in the specifications and to define a roadmap to build up and improve the offer of the OITB to best suit market and R&I needs,
• the listing of current EU & national regulations on building envelope and the build of the METABUILDING LABS OITB catalogue of testing infrastructures that will be related to market requirements to identify and develop a series of acquisition of new infrastructures or upgrading of existing in most of the RTOs of the OITB network, allowing to further reinforce the catalogue,
• the adaptation of the TRL scale for the construction sector as a way to best structure the OITB technical offer and improve its legibility,
• the definition of the METABUILDING LABS digital services modules and their requirements to be integrated in the METABUILDING platfom,
• the design of an innovative testing facility that will be replicated across Europe as an Open-Acess, Open-Data, Open-Source Building Envelope Testbed (O3BET), resulting to a first delivered version of the O3BET,
• the launch of activities to allow an optimal exploitation and to ease the overall management of the O3BET,
• the definition of five innovative technologies concepts for building envelope that will benefit from the METABUILDING LABS services and expertise until they reach the exploitation phase and they reached the market,
• the definition of a “pilots as Living Labs” strategy to test innovative envelope technologies developed in METABUILDING LABS on real buildings in order to reach TRL 7 through demonstration in operational environment.
Overall, METABUILDING LABS project partners aim to deliver a large positive impact on the innovation performance of SMEs in the development of high quality and innovative building envelopes. In this perspective, the consortium structures the innovation process by carrying out several activities necessary to enhance the availability, accessibility, quality and cost of testing facilities across Europe from TRL 4 to TRL 8. When this overall impact is achieved, the innovation capacity of the EU will be strengthened and will generate direct economic impacts with the creation of new professions and other economic growth.