Project – iClimaBuilt SEP

About iClimaBuilt Project

Project Goals

iclimabuilt’s goal is to create an open access ecosystem for developing, upscaling and testing innovations in building envelope materials and technical systems via its 9 Pilot Lines (PLs) to reach Nearly Zero Energy Buildings (nZEB) balance. At the same time, iclimabuilt will support and help small high-tech firms to scale up and cope with the continuous rising of technological complexity, assisting in the transformation of research results into innovations.

What is an Open Innovation Test Bed (OITB)?

OITBs are entities offering access to physical facilities, pilot lines, capabilities and services required for the development, testing and upscaling of nanotechnology and advanced materials for new innovative products and services in industrial environments. These facilities can be both existing and new, public and
private test beds. The main goal of OITBs is to assist companies and users advance from validation in a laboratory to prototypes in industrial environments by giving them access to technology.
Potential users of the OITBs can be industrial, including SMEs, as well as innovators and start-ups

iClimaBuilt’s Aim

iclimabuilt project aims to form a cross-domain business ecosystem combining the capabilities of different experts, building the connection between suppliers and users, based on the cooperation within interdisciplinary entities to support new product development/upscaling and testing, satisfy customer needs based on a case-by-case assessment of the underlying barriers of each technology, and eventually incorporate the next round of innovations in building envelope materials and technical systems. The goal here is to support the translation of research results into innovations and help small high-tech firms to scale up and cope with the continuous rising of technological complexity and by providing a Single-Entry-Point for necessary infrastructures and tools to test, validate and upscale new technological solutions.

iclimabuilt will do so with the aim to accelerate the development of additional leading-edge technology by focusing on:

materials development (for improved thermal and functional performance of building envelope solutions),
design and assembly of technical systems (fully customizable, flexible, modular and de-mountable aesthetic designs),
monitoring and characterization strategies to support decision-making (fully monitored living labs and nonresidential nZEBs),
dissemination and exploitation activities (increased market and societal acceptance of validated products through the testbed),
refined and expedited access to financing solutions to reinforce the competitiveness and extroversion of SMEs, all translated to “6 building blocks” in the project.

Thus, considering the building as a system, a mix of measures tailored to specific regions and applications, their combination and synergistic integration is critical to attain the most efficient solution for the transition to sustainable buildings.