Deadline: 22-Feb-24
The European Commission (EC) has announced a call for proposals for climate-smart use of wood in the construction sector to support the New European Bauhaus.
Scope
- Wood materials remain considerably under-utilised in the construction sector despite their durability and appreciation by end users. At the same time, there is a need for making the construction sector more renewable and circular, which includes the use of currently underused timber such as hardwoods, damage wood and post-consumer wood, while including circularity as part of a broader system and design loop. This requires new raw material sources and secondary material, technologies, and designs for wood components, specified products and for wooden buildings. Buildings need also to be adapted to climate change, including as regards summer and winter thermic performance.
- Proposals will:
- Analyse the potential market and new technologies (such as the use of AI, IoT sensors or robotics) as well as processes for the utilisation of hardwoods, low quality, damage, and post-consumer wood in the construction sector, including for the refurbishment of buildings.
- Explore the potential of zero-waste concepts by developing solutions for each source type to turn into viable products as elements and as whole buildings in the wood construction sector.
- Design wood building blueprints based on these products and other underutilised bio-based materials, taking into account the reuse, adaptability and healthy living environment (e.g. avoidance of hazardous substances) into the design.
- Study and integrate human health and wellbeing aspects, as well as the cultural traditions of local crafts and design languages, as integral elements of the built space.
- Analyse and propose systems to overcome technical, logistical, legal, business, political, economic, knowledge and social barriers, challenges and opportunities and derive integrated policy recommendations and business strategies for enlarging the wood construction sector in Europe.
- Include the reuse, recycling, renovation and deconstructivity into product and building design concepts.
- Develop robust, transparent and cost-effective methodologies to quantify the carbon removal benefits of key wood construction products and other building materials.
- Develop roadmaps to mainstreaming multi-story wood buildings in Europe, which are the main market segment in living and commercial/office spaces in cities.
- Engage with relevant stakeholder in co-creation processes (e.g., the New European Bauhaus Community of Partners, policy, architects, business, insurance, investment, society, public and private sector).
- Link with other selected proposals and the NEB Lab and establish an open-access wood construction observatory in Europe, to monitor and update progress, statistics, good practice guidelines and solutions on wood construction.
- Address policy frameworks and standards that are still hindering innovation and further market development, as well international production norms and standards for assessing the ecological effects, climate adaptation and climate footprint of buildings which do not account for all benefits of wood.
Funding Information
- The check will normally be done for the coordinator if the requested grant amount is equal to or greater than EUR 500 000, except for:
- public bodies (entities established as a public body under national law, including local, regional or national authorities) or international organisations; and
- cases where the individual requested grant amount is not more than EUR 60 000 (lowvalue grant).
Expected Outcomes
- This topic will support the New European Bauhaus initiative and the implementation of the new EU forest strategy by making the construction sector more renewable and circular especially for existing buildings, which includes the use of currently underused timber such as hardwoods, salvage wood and post-consumer wood for traditional and newly emerging innovative woody biomass-based applications, while including circularity as part of a broader system and design loop.
- Projects results are expected to contribute to all of the following outcomes:
- Enhanced contribution of the forest-based sector with respect to climate change mitigation and adaptation, a toxic-free environment and rural development objectives.
- Pathways for an efficient conversion of solid biomass into forms of long-term carbon storage.
- Enhanced contribution of the forest-based sector to decarbonisation strategies for buildings, both in terms of operational emissions, embodied emissions, and carbon removals, in relation to the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, the renovation wave strategy, the Construction Products Regulation and other EU policies on buildings.
- Contribute to a robust and transparent methodology to quantify the climate benefits of wood construction products and other building materials, reflecting the most advanced dynamic life-cycle analyses and in view of contributing to the carbon farming initiative and carbon removal certification.
- Increased resource efficiency and minimisation of environmental footprint of wood products used in construction works.
- Better knowledge about the quantitative limits of global wood supply and the limits of wood as a resource.
Eligible Activities
- Projects must focus exclusively on civil applications and must not:
- aim at human cloning for reproductive purposes;
- intend to modify the genetic heritage of human beings which could make such changes heritable (except for research relating to cancer treatment of the gonads, which may be financed);
- intend to create human embryos solely for the purpose of research, or for the purpose of stem cell procurement, including by means of somatic cell nuclear transfer. Projects must, moreover, comply with EU policy interests and priorities (environment, social, security, industrial policy, etc.).
- The following activities are generally eligible for grants under Horizon Europe:
- Research and innovation actions (RIA) — Activities that aim primarily to establish new knowledge or to explore the feasibility of a new or improved technology, product, process, service or solution. This may include basic and applied research, technology development and integration, testing, demonstration and validation of a small-scale prototype in a laboratory or simulated environment.
- Innovation actions (IA) — Activities that aim directly to produce plans and arrangements or designs for new, altered or improved products, processes or services. These activities may include prototyping, testing, demonstrating, piloting, large-scale product validation and market replication.
- Coordination and support actions (CSA) — Activities that contribute to the objectives of Horizon Europe. This excludes research and innovation (R&I) activities, except those carried out under the ‘Widening participation and spreading excellence’ component of the programme (part of ‘Widening participation and strengthening the European Research Area’).
- Programme co-fund actions (CoFund) — A programme of activities established or implemented by legal entities managing or funding R&I programmes, other than EU funding bodies. Such a programme of activities may support: networking and coordination; research; innovation; pilot actions; innovation and market deployment; training and mobility; awareness raising and communication; and dissemination and exploitation.
- Innovation and market deployment actions (IMDA) — Activities that embed an innovation action and other activities necessary to deploy an innovation on the market. This includes the scaling-up of companies and Horizon Europe blended finance.
- Training and mobility actions (TMA) — Activities that aim to improve the skills, knowledge and career prospects of researchers, based on mobility between countries and, if relevant, between sectors or disciplines.
- Pre-commercial procurement actions (PCP) — Activities that aim to help a transnational buyers’ group to strengthen the public procurement of research, development, validation and, possibly, the first deployment of new solutions that can significantly improve quality and efficiency in areas of public interest, while opening market opportunities for industry and researchers active in Europe.
- Public procurement of innovative solutions actions (PPI) — Activities that aim to strengthen the ability of a transnational buyers’ group to deploy innovative solutions early by overcoming the fragmentation of demand for such solutions and sharing the risks and costs of acting as early adopters, while opening market opportunities for industry.
Eligibility Criteria
- Any legal entity, regardless of its place of establishment, including legal entities from nonassociated third countries or international organisations (including international European research organisations) is eligible to participate (whether it is eligible for funding or not), provided that the conditions laid down in the Horizon Europe Regulation have been met, along with any other conditions laid down in the specific call topic.
- A ‘legal entity’ means any natural or legal person created and recognised as such under national law, EU law or international law, which has legal personality and which may, acting in its own name, exercise rights and be subject to obligations, or an entity without legal personality.
- To be eligible for funding, applicants must be established in one of the following countries:
- the Member States of the European Union, including their outermost regions: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden.
- the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) linked to the Member States: Aruba (NL), Bonaire (NL), Curação (NL), French Polynesia (FR), French Southern and Antarctic Territories (FR), Greenland (DK), New Caledonia (FR), Saba (NL), Saint Barthélemy (FR), Sint Eustatius (NL), Sint Maarten (NL), St. Pierre and Miquelon (FR), Wallis and Futuna Islands (FR).
- countries associated to Horizon Europe: Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Faroe Islands, Georgia, Iceland, Israel, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine.
- Specific cases:
- Affiliated entities — Affiliated entities are eligible for funding if they are established in one of the countries listed above, or in a country identified in the specific call conditions.
- Associated partners — Entities not eligible for funding (and therefore not able to participate as beneficiaries) may participate as associated partners, unless specified otherwise in the specific call conditions.
- Coordination and Support Actions – To be eligible to participate as beneficiaries (or affiliated entities) in ‘Coordination and support’ actions, legal entities must be established in a Member State or Associated Country, unless the specific call conditions provide otherwise. Legal entities established in a non-associated third country may, however, participate in ‘Coordination and support’ actions as associated partners, unless this is explicitly excluded by the specific call conditions.
- EU bodies — Legal entities created under EU law may also be eligible to receive funding, unless their basic act states otherwise.
- International organisations — International European research organisations are eligible to receive funding. Unless their participation is considered essential for implementing the action by the granting authority, other international organisations are not eligible to receive funding. International organisations with headquarters in a Member State or Associated Country are eligible to receive funding for ‘Training and mobility’ actions and when provided for in the specific call conditions.
For more information, visit European Commission.