Innovative pathways for low carbon and climate resilient building stock and built environment (Built4People Partnership)

Expected Outcome

Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• Improved planning methods and procedures which are replicable and scalable across Europe, and potentially globally, and that embed the uptake of building solutions to improve whole life carbon performance[1], circularity, sustainability, climate resilience, safety and durability of buildings and the built environment, in line with the commitment of making the EU climate neutral by 2050;
• Measurable increase in the number of relevant value chain actors applying such planning methods, procedures and building solutions for the benefit of citizens;
• Quantified pathways to improved buildings’ and built environment’s whole life carbon performance.

Scope

EU and associated countries continue to develop innovative building solutions that support the decarbonisation and climate resilience of buildings and the built environment, addressing energy performance, circularity, sustainability, resource efficiency, climate resilience, safety, durability and adaptability of the building stock, and whole life carbon emissions. A key challenge remains the accelerated uptake of such solutions in building and renovation projects. Building value chain actors - such as housing association, municipal and regional authorities, or policy makers - require planning methods and procedures that embed the uptake of innovative building solutions and define pathways for the decarbonisation and climate resilience of the building stock and the built environment under their responsibility.

Proposals are expected to address all of the following:

• Develop and validate replicable and scalable planning methods and procedures that embed the uptake of innovative sets of building solutions when developing or regenerating (including deconstruction aspects when relevant) the building stock and the built environment;
• Validate the planning methods, procedures and sets of building solutions in a relevant environment in at least three countries, with different climatic conditions and building stock characteristics. In at least two cases, the proposed planning methods and procedures should be relevant for renovation;
• Investigate the use of innovative tools and methods which facilitate the adaptation of the buildings stock to changing user needs, while positively contributing to occupants’ comfort and health;
• Propose and apply a methodology for assessing the effectiveness of the developed pathways for the decarbonisation and climate resilience of buildings and the built environment, including the calculation of their whole life carbon reduction compared to a “business as usual” scenario;
• Ensure the active involvement of all relevant public and private stakeholders of the whole renovation and construction value chain, which must include among others: municipalities, citizens (including vulnerable groups) and civil society organisations and the building and construction sector professions;
• Contribute to the objectives of the Built4People partnership and its network of innovation clusters[2].

Selected proposals could consider the involvement of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) whose contribution could consist of providing added value on innovative building solutions for resource efficiency, safety, durability and adaptability of the building stock, as well as performing experimental research for validating those solutions on full-scale prototype buildings.

This topic requires the effective contribution of SSH disciplines and the involvement of SSH experts, institutions as well as the inclusion of relevant SSH expertise (including social innovation), in order to produce meaningful and significant effects enhancing the societal impact of the related research activities.

This topic implements the co-programmed European Partnership on ‘People-centric sustainable built environment’ (Built4People). As such, projects resulting from this topic will be expected to report on results to the European Partnership ‘People-centric sustainable built environment’ (Built4People) in support of the monitoring of its KPIs.

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Activities are expected to achieve TRL 4-5 by the end of the project – see General Annex B. Activities may start at any TRL.

[1] “Supporting the development of a roadmap for the reduction of whole life carbon of buildings”, European Union, 2023’. This publication commissioned by the European Commission includes the following definition: “Whole life carbon encompasses all greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the materials, construction and the use of a building over its entire life, including its demolition and disposal. It is thus the total amount of embodied and operational emissions.”

[2] https://built4people.eu/nebula_project/