Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - BIMEET (BIM-based EU -wide Standardized Qualification Framework for achieving Energy Efficiency Training)

Teaser

The European Construction sector is facing unprecedented challenges to achieve ambitious energy efficiency objectives (with the aim to generalize Near-Zero Energy Buildings), in an economic crisis context dominated by reduced investments, search for cost effectiveness and high...

Summary

The European Construction sector is facing unprecedented challenges to achieve ambitious energy efficiency objectives (with the aim to generalize Near-Zero Energy Buildings), in an economic crisis context dominated by reduced investments, search for cost effectiveness and high productivity. Moreover the industry is experiencing its digital revolution, with Building Information Modeling (BIM) approach gaining significant interest across Europe. Member states implement very different approaches through regulations and maturity targets, which always face the traditional low-tech and informal practices of construction businesses (a fragmented sector, dominated by SMEs). Moreover the dynamics of new roles and skills associated with BIM and ICT requires to implement cutting-edge methodology to analyse regulations, standards, case studies as well as social media sources.
BIMEET project aims to leverage the take-up of ICT and BIM through a significant upgrade of the skills and capacities of the EU construction workforce. This Coordination and Support Action project is built around a strong consortium relying on educational and research & technology expertise, robust experience of accrediting bodies, training supply chain and a wide engagement of industry led best practice (i.e. the External Experts Advisory Board).
Through its actions the project will (a) pave the way to a fundamental step change in delivering systematic, measurable and effective energy efficient buildings through BIM training with a view to effectively address European energy and carbon reduction targets; (b) promote a well-trained world leading generation of decision makers, practitioners, and blue collars in BIM for energy efficiency; (c) establish a world-leading platform for BIM for energy efficiency training nurtured by an established community of interest.
Its principal outputs are 1) a skills matrix related to BIM and energy efficiency, harmonized thanks to EQF standard, and 2) a training platform contributing to widely disseminate the BIMEET EQF. These results associated with an accreditation scheme will guarantee the sustainability of the project results after its lifetime.

Work performed

WP2 is built as a research-driven work package. It consisted in defining requirements for BIM and energy efficiency as well as stating the gaps in terms of training. Initial research enabled to gather evidences of the use of BIM for energy efficiency through literature review, case studies gathering and interviews. This approach enabled defining initial statements and conclusions (D2.1).
Then a benchmarking of existing EU-wide Building Information Modelling (BIM) training across the building value chain has been performed. This phase of the project involved highlighting energy efficiency linkages; identifying qualification targets and accreditation mechanisms, whilst highlighting training gaps and enhancement potential (D2.2). Finally, recognising the emergence of new roles and the dynamic nature of the skills required by the industry, the team deployed an approach based on data analytics techniques. Social media analysis has been used alongside standards, use-cases, interviews and scientific publications datasets as a method to collect roles and skills in order to inform future BIM practices and promote improved BIM training and education.
The pieces of knowledge produced through these tasks are reported gradually on the www.energy-bim.com, a semantic web-based portal deployed for BIMEET Community which purpose is to disseminate energy efficient practices and community engagement and to provide support for building managers in implementing energy efficient optimization plans.

The team also worked on the BIMEET EQF matrix. The task T3.1 focused on setting up the whole framework based on actors’ profiles and responsibilities associated with each phase of building lifecycle. This approach was taken from BIM4VET project (www.bim4vet.eu) results and guarantees the compatibility with the sets of responsibilities and competencies validated in BIM4VET.
The method applied to define the BIMEET responsibilities and profiles is a top-down approach (D3.1), meaning that the team first relied on case studies and interviews, as well as a series of experiments focusing on design engineering phase and testing several BIMtoBEM workflows. In terms of results, this approach enabled:
• To define the whole matrix of responsibilities for each profile and phase. Then, Knowledge, Competencies and Skills have been defined for some of them.
• To identify standardization opportunities, mainly by further defining information exchanges workflows.

The works related to WP4 started during the first period mainly through the deployment of www.energy-bim.com platform. The specification of the whole BIMEET platform will also include the deployment of results from BIM4VET.

The composition of the External Experts Advisory Board (EEAB) is the first action undertaken in the framework of WP5. The first workshop was fruitful mainly in validating our approach and methodology, as well as in gathering training gaps identified by both partners and experts.

The process to define the “BIMEET label” is under discussion within the consortium. The main steps with regards this definition have been identified.

WP6 started very early in the project with the development of the website and the first leaflet, as well as the definition of target groups in each country, the material to be disseminated and the communication media to be used. Communication actions took the form of web articles, written paper in magazines, scientific papers writing, presentations in conferences and spreading the energy-bim.com platform. In particular, one can notice the organisation of national workshops, seminars for students as well as two initial training modules delivered in France and in Luxembourg.

Final results

The activities undertaken in the first period confirmed that applying BIM at design and construction definitely has an impact on the energy performance. However, it is known that operation phase of building has the greatest impact. In the context of BIMEET, the research team also addresses the uses of BIM for improved energy monitoring and optimisation of energy management, as well as energy performance -related decision making in the context of managing portfolios of buildings and district level energy optimization based on BIM.

The consortium plans to deliver 9 training modules in the second period, while extending this effort to the EEAB members and Community of Interest members. In addition, the outputs delivered are expected to be turned into training material to be made available to teachers, trainers and professionals.

The main challenge related to market recognition impact lies in aligning learning outcomes at EU level, mainly because of the difference of maturity in between the different countries with regards to BIM. We plan to take it into account, by developing an integrative approach to learning outcomes definition. Moreover, the partners will share these findings with the EEAB members during the second period in order to validate the assumptions.

Website & more info

More info: http://www.bimeet.eu.