What do we support

Motivation 

Across nations, changing climate conditions bring a number of unresolved issues and societal challenges that require new approaches to mitigation and solution. This framework covers research projects aiming at describing and explaining problems arising from changing climate conditions, including loss of biodiversity, and proposals for potential solutions. The focus is on topics where engineering and related solutions play a major role. 

Examples  

• Avoiding/managing floods
• Pressure on critical infrastructure
• Effects of drought
• Effects of changing temperatures and weather phenomena
• Creating liveable environments in challenging times
• Nature-positive solutions 

Motivation 

The construction sector has been identified as a key sector in the transformation from a linear to a circular material use. This calls for new approaches and methodologies that will allow reuse of materials, components and entire structures without compromising structural safety. 

New and lighter construction materials may lead to savings in overall quantities and thereby in CO₂ footprint. New materials and components may be designed so that they require less maintenance during their service life. New materials and components may be designed to facilitate reuse for other purposes with minimum energy input required. Study is required on how to repurpose existing material and avoid waste. 

The proposed solutions have to be carefully balanced against other requirements related to structural safety, dynamic response, comfort for users and functional requirements in broad terms.  

Examples 

• Timber and timber composites
• Composites in general
• Alternatives to cement
• Larger void ratios
• Non-destructive test methods to assess the condition of materials and components for reuse.
• Flexible designs that limit the initial carbon investment in the structure, while allowing for later additions, upgrades or changes in use.

Motivation 

Changing safety conditions and political interests lead to an increased risk of instability. There seems to have been less focus on resilience, in terms of security and reliability for those systems on which society is so dependent. This framework contains research projects aimed at understanding and solving problems in relation to stability and securing functional critical infrastructure in both times of crisis and changes of methods of operation. 

Examples 

• Redundant systems
• Passive systems
• Changing system vulnerability
• IT and data security
• Ensuring vital conditions for people
• Systems and decision-makers

Motivation 

Artificial Intelligence has been around for many decades and it has been utilized in a wide array of engineering projects through solutions provided by software developers. Today we see a great interest in Generative AI, which is trained on extreme amounts of data collected from general sources like books and the internet. Data that is needed to train AI technology aimed for architecture and engineering design is usually not shared publicly by building and infrastructure owners. In order to develop robust solutions, data from a single owner is insufficient; therefore, groups of owners need to collaborate and share data collectively. When the training data is gathered, more research is needed to develop use cases, pilot solutions, and create reliable software. 

Examples

Using AI to

• improve efficiency and safety in construction and maintenance operations
• predict the lifespan of materials and/or structures
• optimize building materials and energy use
• assist in designing structures that better withstand natural disasters and help in planning resilient urban environments.

Motivation 

With the urgent need to reduce CO₂ emissions, the construction industry together with asset owners have to look into extending the service life of existing structures, upgrading and re-purposing rather than building new. Data provided by monitoring of the assets will be a valuable source of information to analyse and assess options when it comes to maintenance, intervention and the repair or replacement of components. Both the degree of intervention and the timing are important parameters to study. 

Examples 

• Digital twins  
• Monitoring 
• Calibration of models  
• Assessment of remaining service life 

Motivation 

New knowledge and technologies are needed to support the green transition in the energy sector to limit global warming and decrease emissions of carbon. The research under this topic is intended to support the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.  

Examples 

• Offshore and onshore wind energy
• Solar energy
• Energy storage
• Batteries
• Onshore transmission
• District heating
• Green fuels
• Hydrogen infrastructure
• Onshore renewable power plants
• Power-to-X
• Carbon capture.