More than 50 construction sector professionals met today at the Instituto Eduardo Torroja de Ciencias de la Construcción of the CSIC (IETCC-CSIC) to attend the training workshop on BIM and Nearly Zero Energy Buildings (nZEB), which the organisation organises in collaboration with Fundación Laboral de la Construction.

The conference, which is part of the training and dissemination activities of Net-UBIEP and Construye 2020+ project, initiatives that belong to the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and in which both Spanish organisations participate, has been aimed at engineers and architects with the aim of updating and complementing their knowledge in new methodologies and construction systems design.

The attendees included representatives of construction companies and business associations; public bodies and administrations; professional education and training centres, as well as trainers from the sector; professional associations in energy efficiency; technicians, consultants and specialists in energy efficiency, renewable energy systems and nZEB; and researchers specialised in green competences, BIM methodology and Lean Construction, who received at the end of the session access to a free 6 hours course on BIM, which is provided by Fundación Laboral de la Construcción and complements the training workshop.

Synergies between innovative European initiatives

Net-UBIEP and Construye 2020+, belonging to the “Safe, Clean and Efficient Energy” work package of the Horizon 2020 programme, have been presented by both Spanish partners. Javier González, head of International Projects at Fundación Laboral de la Construcción, and José Antonio Tenorio, head scientist at the IETCC-CSIC, took advantage of the technical space of the conference to disseminate the progress of both projects to a specialised audience.

For its part, Net-UBIEP aims to improve the energy performance of buildings through the use of BIM during the life cycle of construction, which simulates the energy performance of buildings using various materials and components.

Related with the Construye 2020+ objective, the project aims to take a further step towards an efficient construction industry, as well as the use of sustainable and competitive energy through the definition and development of an updated training and accreditation scheme for professionals in green competencies. The initiative is part of the Build Up Skills initiative, and the projects Build Up Skills Spain (2011-2013) and Build Up Skills Spain “Construye 2020” (2013-2016), both led by Fundación Laboral de la Construcción.