Metabuilding Labs: an innovative drive for collaboration in construction
Although we have already reached the halfway point of 2021, the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme (H2020) is still in the news; you know, it’s the European programme that concentrates a large part of its research and innovation activities.
One of the projects underway is Metabuilding Labs (G.A. No. 953193), a five-year innovation project that aims to contribute to achieving the Paris Agreement (COP21) goal of «nearly zero-energy, zero-emission buildings».
So what’s this all about and what’s it got to do with us? Well, the good news is that Minsait has been chosen to participate in this project along with thirty-nine other partners from up to thirteen different European countries, so the project is no small deal. With the defined objective in mind, we are looking to provide European small and medium-sized enterprises (the SMEs, you know) in the construction sector with easy access to a wide network of high-value test facilities that will enable them to develop and test innovative solutions for next-generation buildings, such as:
- Research and technology organisations.
- Living Labs.
- Social housing buildings.
This will enable SMEs to accelerate innovation, allowing them to be more competitive with the big players in the industrial world. However, in order to involve as many SMEs as possible, it is not only necessary to create, organise and operate test facilities and services, but also to implement a strategy that is both robust and effective – something that has been termed «meta-clustering».
The idea, therefore, is to maximise collaborative working and resource sharing between these clusters – divided into twelve meta-clusters – with the aim of reaching up to 30,000 SMEs in all European regions.
This project is closely related to the Metabuilding H2020 project (G.A. No. 873964), which started in June 2020 and involved the creation of a Digital Open Innovation Platform for innovation in the construction sector, a platform that will be consolidated and expanded through Metabuilding Labs (the pieces are coming together, as you can see).
Sure, but where do we fit into all this? Minsait, through the Onesait Platform, is going to collaborate in this project in several ways, with the following work packages standing out:
- Development of the requirements for the Metabuilding Labs innovation testbeds.
- Development and integration of digital platform services.
- Modelling and exploitation of virtual testbeds.
- Technology developments in Metabuilding Labs using Living Labs as pilots.
Beyond our collaboration on these packages, we will be responsible for the definition of the digital services architecture of the testbeds, and we will also lead the testing services of the Living Labs.
We will also collaborate in a complementary way on these other work packages:
- Exploitation: Business Model, replicability and ecosystem expansion.
- Communication, dissemination and training activities.
- Coordination and management.
As you can imagine, we are very excited to be able to participate and apply our technology and experience in this project. As the months go by, we will bring you more information about it and we will tell you how we are evolving.
METABUILDING LABS Project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement No. 953193. The sole responsibility for the content of this document lies entirely with the author’s view. The European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.
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