LightCoce

Description

• Programme: Horizon 2020, NMBP-01-2018
• Funding amount: €9.8 million, of which €2.2 million for Bavaria
• Funding period: 01/2019 - 12/2022
• Coordinator: National Technical University of Athens, Greece
• Project number: 814632
• Website: www.lightcoce-oitb.eu

EU Project LightCoce: Open source platform for multi-functional lightweight concrete and lightweight ceramics

There has been a trend for several years in the construction industry in particular, but also in the aerospace and automotive industry, towards the increased use of ever lighter building materials, such as lightweight concrete and lightweight ceramics. Because of their resilience and versatility, both materials have become more and more a focus of interest, especially in construction and infrastructure.

The transport, handling and installation of lightweight materials requires comparatively less energy and thereby significantly reduces the environmental footprint and costs. Future lightweight construction materials must also have multi-functional properties in their end use that are integrated, for example, through the targeted use of nanomaterials. As a result, high-strength lightweight materials can be provided with the easy-to-clean effect on their external surfaces.

Various research groups are working on the material optimisation of lightweight concrete and lightweight ceramics. However, so far there has been a lack of Europe-wide networking of the research partners and the targeted utilisation of the results achieved by the industry.

The LightCoce project has now set itself the goal of closing this gap between research and end use. The association of several European research institutions, as a "LightCoce Open Innovation Ecosystem", is to develop new lightweight materials in close cooperation with industrial companies and convert them into products. The results will be made available on a web platform to a large group of research and industry end-users, such as manufacturers of building materials (bricks, ceramic tiles, precast concrete mixes and precast components) or even high-tech applications for the aerospace and automotive industries. A total of 26 partners from ten EU countries, including five large industrial companies, eight research and technology organisations (RTOs) and twelve SME, will work together over a period of four years on innovative lightweight solutions under the coordination of the National Technical University of Athens. Four partners from Bavaria are participating: the Nuremberg University of Technology, Axia Innovation, the Research Institute for Thermal Insulation e. V. Munich and Schlagmann Poroton GmbH & Co. KG. As an "Open Innovation Testbed", the LightCoce EU project not only brings together the research institutions and companies involved in joint developments of lightweight construction materials, but also cross-border stakeholders, suppliers, vendors, customers and even competitors.