ISQ WINS EUROPEAN PROJECT IN BUILDING REHABILITATION

The European Commission has just approved an innovative project, with Portuguese coordination, aimed at responding to the reduction of energy consumption and CO2 emissions in buildings in Europe. The project, which calls itself SUREFIT – Decarbonisation of the EU building stock: innovative approaches and affordable solutions changing the market for buildings renovation "brings together various entities throughout Europe but will be coordinated by ISQ, a Portuguese entity, which gives Portugal a prominent role and an important recognition in the framework of sustainable development", highlights Pedro Matias, President of ISQ. ISQ will thus coordinate a consortium consisting of uk entities (University of Nottingham and PCM Products, ltd), France (Winco Tecnologies), Germany (KÖSTER Lichtplanung Ltd), Finland (Aalto University), Turkey (Solimpeks Solar Energy Corp), Italy (Emmeti SpA), Poland (Complex SP ZOO), Spain (Fundación Santa María la Real del Patrimonio Histórico) and Greece (Advanced Management Solutions). "The project will start in the first half of 2020 and last for 4 years, with a global investment of 4 million euros," adds Pedro Matias. SUREFIT aims to empower European industries to pioneer the development of new advanced building rehabilitation technologies. It is primarily intended to "provide environmental and economic solutions that will significantly reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions from buildings. To this end, new business models, markets and job opportunities are proposed in a wide range of manufacturing, energy and construction industries in Europe," says Muriel Iten, head of ISQ's Low Carbon & Energy Efficiency I&Di unit. The project will not only contribute "to European excellence in combating energy poverty but also to improving the quality of life of its citizens by strengthening the European Union through collaboration between industries and academic and innovation institutions. Complementary skills are encouraged and young researchers are encouraged," adds Muriel Iten. The consortium of this project was considered by the evaluators of the European Commission as "highly complementary and multidisciplinary, composed of research institutions, design and manufacturing companies, companies specialized in control and management of residential building companies. These complementary skills were developed by different partners in different countries, and different areas of knowledge are involved, such as thermal and materials engineering, architecture, construction engineering, manufacturing, computing and optimization", concludes Muriel. ISQ's contribution to this project concerns, in addition to general coordination, support in the development of technologies (heat recovery and evaporative cooling). In addition, together with Mota Engil, ISQ will support the deep rehabilitation of the pilot building Portuguese located in the municipality of Mafra and also develop a script of good practices for building rehabilitation with a view to the future development of business models for different typologies and geographical areas in Europe. It is recalled that ISQ has know-how in this area, having already participated in international projects such as Moebius (European research to optimize consumption in buildings) and ClimAct (project to raise awareness and capacity of the entire school community with the aim of building more sustainable schools, addressing climate change). The latter was recently awarded at the European Sustainable Energy Week Awards.