Project description
Making wood as strong as concrete
The rise of urbanisation has resulted in a shortage of construction materials and the use of building materials that are unsustainable. However, steel and concrete cannot be replaced by wood which is not as strong as required. The EU-funded Woodoo project proposes an innovative technology that transforms natural wood into an amplified material that is as strong as concrete and translucent. The technology replaces wood’s lignin with a biopolymer that improves its performance, allowing the construction of wooden buildings and reducing environmental impact. Woodoo will produce small quantities of the product for car suppliers to create auto interiors. The aim is to commercialise for future use by car manufacturers and sawmills for large-level localised production.
Objective
Woodoo transforms natural wood into an augmented material that is strong, light, durable and stunningly translucent. It uses a patented scalable technology to replace wood’s lignin with a bio-polymer that boosts its performance. The result is a material as strong as concrete and luminous as amber. It will be used to create unique auto interiors, lightweight car chassis and sustainable wooden buildings. It will benefit Europe by revitalising the forestry sector. Problem: Global shortage of construction materials (concrete, steel), even as the urbanisation boom exacerbates demand. Current building materials are unsustainable. Wood is too weak to replace steel and concrete. Solution: Woodoo creates augmented wood, a new material that is abundant, sustainable and extremely strong. Woodoo wood can be bent into any shape, used like touchscreens for electronics, and replace concrete to build massive wooden constructions with low environmental footprint. Innovation: Wood is treated to remove lignin, then impregnated with a proprietary polymer. This modifies wood’s structure, increasing strength and durability, while allowing light to penetrate. Commercialization: Woodoo will produce small batches for auto suppliers for interior panels and wooden touchscreens. It will later license technology to carmakers and sawmills to enable large-scale localized production. Demand: Interest from major premium car manufacturers and tier 1 suppliers. Markets: Auto outfitting, construction materials, lignin by-product. All large and growing. TAM of €125B for the automotive interior materials and €313B for wood construction. Company: Founded in 2016. Team of experienced managers and R&D experts. Ready to scale. Project: Woodoo will develop an auto interior part (a dashboard) from augmented wood. The outcome will be a ready-to-launch production process.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
- engineering and technology environmental engineering energy and fuels renewable energy
- natural sciences chemical sciences polymer sciences
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries forestry
- engineering and technology civil engineering architecture engineering sustainable architecture sustainable building
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.2.3. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.3. - PRIORITY 'Societal challenges
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H2020-EU.2.1. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
SME-2 - SME instrument phase 2
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
75001 Paris
France
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.