Flemish innovation partners want to industrialise renovation and construction: accelerating from design to site
EnergyVille partners KU Leuven and VITO, Buildwise, Flanders Make and Sirris are joining forces in a strategic partnership. By connecting their research, infrastructure and networks more strongly, they aim to bring innovative solutions to the construction sector faster and thus contribute to faster, more affordable and future-proof renovations.
Flanders faces a renovation challenge of unprecedented scale. Homes that consume too much energy, a renovation rate that is lagging behind and a construction sector under pressure from labour shortages, safety challenges and international competition. Anyone who wants to untangle that knot must go beyond isolated innovations.
That is why KU Leuven and VITO, partners within EnergyVille, Buildwise, Flanders Make and Sirris are joining forces with one clear ambition: accelerating innovation from the drawing board to the construction site. The innovation partners connect research, development, test and validation infrastructure and sector networks into one innovation chain. In this way, they reduce the gap between promising ideas and their application in renovation and construction projects.
Industrialisation of renovation and construction
Specifically, the five research centres are working together on the industrialisation of renovation and construction: automation, robotics and digitalisation. Next-generation building envelopes are also central to this. These solutions make homes more energy-efficient and climate-resilient.
The partners signed the Memorandum of Understanding on the sidelines of an event at EnergyVille where more than 40 companies from the construction and energy sector were given an insight into the test infrastructure where their solutions are tested and validated at full scale.
5 complementary partners
The strength of the partnership lies in its complementarity. Buildwise validates new solutions and brings its close connection with the construction sector, KU Leuven and VITO, within EnergyVille, bring their expertise in energy, building physics and circular building concepts, Flanders Make brings its knowledge in automation and robotics, and Sirris brings its experience in manufacturability, scaling up and industrial application.
Together, they ensure that research programmes are better aligned with the needs of tomorrow. The partners build on existing collaborations and create room for new research projects, innovation initiatives and valorisation pathways within Flemish and European programmes. With one common goal: a stronger construction and renovation sector that helps Flanders renovate homes faster, more thoroughly and more affordably.
