The H2020 project MEZeroE (Measuring Envelope products and systems contributing to next generation of healthy nearly Zero Energy Buildings, coordinated for Politecnico di Milano by Graziano Salvalai, Associate Professor at the Department of Architecture, Built Environment and Construction Engineering, has officially kicked off.
MEZeroE is a research project that has been funded by the European Commission within the H2020 Programme call on Open Innovation Test Beds for functional materials for building envelopes, whose aim is to support and promote innovation and standardisation in the building sector, contributing to the EU building stock transformation.
Fragmentation and the complex structure of the building market are among the main barriers to technology innovation in this sector. In this context, MEZeroE offers an open innovation ecosystem for the development, testing and upscaling of smart and bio-based, human-centric envelope products, combining infrastructure facilities and expertise of academic and research centres, with innovative solutions proposed by industry to bring disruptive changes into the building market.
The MEZeroE Consortium represents a substantial portion of Europe, and the many partners can be clustered in four main categories:
- RTD, including research centres, universities and laboratories with important testing infrastructures and high awareness of the market needs for performance characterization and certification:
- EURAC Research - project coordinator, Politecnico di Milano, Acondicionamiento Tarrasense Associacion, Universitaet Innsbruck, Zavod Za Gradbenistvo Slovenije, Politechnika Krakowska, Institut de Tecnologia de la Construccion de Catalunya, Danmarks Tekniske Universitet, Fundacion TECNALIA Research & Innovation.
- IND, including innovation driven SMEs and bigger industry players:
- FOCCHI SpA, VELUX AS, WINDOWMASTER International A/S, FLEXBRICK SL, HELIATEK GMBH, Tecnologia Navarra de Nanoproductos SL, FLEXANDROBUST Systems Spolka Z Ograniczona Odpowiedzialnoscia, ROTHO BLAAS SRL, RIKO Hise Proizvodnja In Trzenje D.O.O., INDRESMAT SL.
- M&V, including three complementary very dynamic SMEs ready to share a common data platform with a unique API as access point:
- ARBNCO LTD, NUVAP SpA, GREENTEG AG.
- BIZ, including specialized SMEs enabling to develop, promote and exploit the MEZeroE open innovation platform:
- INCURVO SL, Association COMPAZ, R2M Solution SRL.
A combination of actors with different skills and targets to create a multi-side virtual marketplace containing a demand/offer matching environment, as well as lot of contents to support innovation processes, knowledge transfer and performance-based product characterization.
Nine different pilot lines will be developed within the project, with the aim of characterizing the performance of different building envelope solutions. Politecnico di Milano will work on a specific pilot line, focusing on the characterization of multi-layer dry nZEB Enabler Envelope Solutions facing health and safety requirements. The development of this test-chain will lead to the construction, at our Polo Territoriale di Lecco, of a pilot plant - Building Energy Efficiency pilot - for testing and analysis of innovative building envelope products and materials, especially in reference to their thermal, acoustic, photometric and comfort performances.
Find more:
The MEZeroE project on the EU Commission CORDIS website
The BEEp pilot plant at Polo Territoriale di Lecco
This article was first published on 8 February by Politecnico di Milano.
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