ERABUILD - European Research Area on Sustainable Construction and Operation of Buildings
The building and construction industry is a major sector of Europe's economy. Both technical and process improvements are needed throughout the sector to reduce the environmental impact and enhance the quality and competitiveness.
Many of the issues that require research and development in order to bring about improvement are common to several countries across Europe. Cooperation between national research funders would improve the cost effectiveness of addressing these common issues and enable a wider range of topics to be funded by avoiding un-necessary duplication of work.
To encourage such cooperation the European Commission supported ERABUILD, an ERA-Net project in the field of sustainable construction and operation of buildings. BERR, through the Construction Sector Unit, represented one of the 11 participating countries in the ERABUILD project.
Further information on the ERABUILD project and joint calls can be found on the project website www.erabuild.net.
BERR and the TSB are now working closely with overseas partners to develop the innovation needs of a sustainable construction industry in a proposed new European Research Area network under FP7 for the construction and operation of Buildings (ERACOBUILD) which, if approved, will commence in Autumn 2008.
The new network will seek to extend the principles of collaboration and joint research activities established during the ERABUILD project and include a much larger group of National research funders and institutes from across Europe.
European Construction Technology Platform
The European Construction Technology Platform (ECTP) was launched at the E-CORE B4E conference in Maastricht on 14th-15th October 2004. UK membership of ECTP includes Taylor Woodrow, Corus, Arup, and University of Salford.
The ECTP aims to analyse the sectors challenges in terms of society, sustainability and technological development. Research and innovation strategies will be developed to meet these challenges engaging with and mobilising the wide range of leading skills, expertise and talent available within the industry over the coming decades, in order to meet the needs of the Society. The ECTP is seen as a key grouping to inform future European research calls through Framework Programme 7 and beyond.
Since it was launched, the ECTP has developed forward look document "A vision for a sustainable and competitive construction sector by 2030" this has been signed and committed to by a number of major stakeholders. Terms of Reference have also been agreed. Both of these documents can be viewed at www.ectp.org.
Following on from the vision document, the ECTP produced a Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) to outline how the Vision 2030 will be achieved. This will be followed by roadmaps and strategies for the initial focus areas. The SRA divided the agenda into three key areas -
· Meeting client requirement
· Becoming sustainable
· Transformation of the construction sector
To create the connection between the U Ks national research programmes and the European Research Programme for Construction a UK National Technology Platform NTP) has been established. The UK Platform is chaired by Keith Clarke, Chief Executive of Atkins and will be supported by Constructing Excellence.
www.constructingexcellence.org.uk
Tel: 0207 592 1100