Flemish innovation partners want to industrialise renovation and construction: accelerating from design to site

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.

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 70 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.

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.

Quotes

“By joining forces with VITO, KU Leuven, Flanders Make and Sirris, we are building a strong ecosystem of knowledge centres to bring innovation to construction companies faster,” says Olivier Vandooren, CEO of Buildwise.

“The renovation rate must become four times faster to become climate-neutral by 2050. With the same workforce as today, we can only make such an acceleration happen by fully focusing on automation, robotisation, standardisation and prefabrication. To do this, we need to be able to test new solutions in real-life conditions as quickly as possible. That is exactly why this collaboration is so important: it brings expertise together to considerably accelerate the entire innovation process in construction,” says Bram De Wispelaere, General Manager of EnergyVille.

“At Flanders Make, we transform disruptive technologies into industrial solutions with impact, so that companies remain at the forefront in a rapidly changing world. By connecting our expertise with that of our partners, innovative renovation and construction solutions can be tested, validated and scaled up faster,” says Grisja Lobbestael, CEO of Flanders Make.

“Innovation in construction only has societal impact when it can make the step from the lab to the construction site. By joining our complementary expertise, we translate scientific breakthroughs more quickly into practical solutions that help accelerate the renovation wave,” says Dirk Saelens, Professor of Building Engineering at KU Leuven.

“The challenge lies not only in developing new renovation and construction solutions, but also in making them industrially mature. To truly accelerate the renovation wave, innovative products must not only be high-performing, but also be produced efficiently and rolled out at scale. From our expertise in product development, advanced manufacturing and automation, we help build a modern production apparatus that translates innovation more quickly into impact on the construction site,” says Herman Derache, Managing Director of Sirris.

“The renovation challenge is too big for fragmentation and too urgent for slowness. We need to work together, gain speed and bring solutions to scale. By connecting our knowledge, infrastructure and industry more strongly, we can test, refine and scale up innovations faster into solutions that are ready for the construction site,” says Inge Neven, CEO of VITO.

Partners

Buildwise
Buildwise is the innovation centre of and for the construction sector. It supports construction professionals in improving the quality, productivity and sustainability of their activities and paves the way for more innovation on the construction site and within construction companies. Through research and development, it acts as a bridge between technological innovation and high-quality, professional construction practice. Buildwise actively focuses on validation, standardisation, quality assurance and dissemination, and in this way ensures that new solutions are applied reliably, safely and correctly. Thanks to its close connection with companies, it supports the sector in the sustainable and broad introduction of improved techniques, methods and processes.

EnergyVille – KU Leuven, VITO
EnergyVille is a collaboration between the Belgian research partners KU Leuven, VITO, imec and UHasselt in the fields of sustainable energy and intelligent energy systems. 700 researchers develop technology and knowledge to support public and private stakeholders in the transition to an energy efficient, decarbonised and sustainable urban environment. The unique complementarity of the research partners allows us to integrate the energy system value chain in its entirety, ranging from materials and components to the level of entire energy systems, business models and strategies. Our activities are clustered in eight interdisciplinary domains: solar energy, battery storage, power electronics, power-to-molecules, thermal systems, electrical networks, energy for buildings and districts, energy strategies and markets.

Flanders Make
Flanders Make is the research centre for industrial innovation. We combine the knowledge and expertise of more than 1,000 researchers, active from the five Flemish universities – KU Leuven, University of Antwerp, Ghent University, Hasselt University and Vrije Universiteit Brussel – and in our department for applied research. We connect companies with our top researchers and other companies with similar challenges, and help them innovate faster and more efficiently. We also offer them advice and support to integrate advanced technologies seamlessly into the company. In this way, we help build a resilient economy, sustainable growth and a strong position for Flanders as a heart of innovation in Europe.

Sirris
Sirris is the collective centre of and for the technological industry in Belgium and supports companies in accelerating technological innovation, from idea to implementation. Sirris brings expertise in product development, advanced manufacturing, digitalisation, automation, circularity and industrial test and demonstration environments. That expertise contributes to industrialising construction and renovation processes by making new solutions manufacturable, reproducible and scalable. Sirris thus strengthens the link between technological innovation, industrial applicability, value chain development and market-oriented implementation, and as a neutral innovation partner forms a bridge between research, companies and industrial application in the construction and renovation sector.