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SINCERE is a 36-month research project organised in six Work Packages (WP), keeping a balance between focused technical work at the laboratory, and collaborative processes to maximize synergies and impact.




Objectives

OBJ-01: Transform CH buildings to a key actor and main stage for raising stakeholders’ and citizens’ awareness on renovation/reuse concept, as a circular economy element to tackle climate change.

OBJ-02: Development of a smart interoperable platform integrating H-BIM / H-DT and immersive XR technologies to provide the digital tools for sustainable renovation and retrofitting of CH buildings.

OBJ-03: Reduction of environmental impact during restoration and maintenance, by developing low-energy and low-carbon restoration mortars, with enhanced compatibility and service life.

OBJ-04: Reduction of energy demands during operation of the restored CH buildings due to enhancement of building thermal performance and enhancement of the service life of repair mortars and of heritage building.

OBJ-05: Enabling solar energy harvesting during building operation, with green, low-cost, large area fully sustainable building integrated photovoltaics (BIPVs).

OBJ-06: Understanding the multi-scale and multi-physics behaviour of high-performance repair mortars and developing fast-running numerical design tools to achieve whole-life carbon savings.

OBJ-07: Validation of SINCERE technologies at 4 demonstration sites - Pilots, in Spain, Greece, Israel and Czech Republic, and assessment of societal, economic, and scientific impact.




Workplan

SINCERE workflow is structured into six work packages (WPs).

WP1 (Project Management) is devoted to project management and coordination, including administrative, financial, legal and data management aspects, while ensuring innovation, technical integrity, and quality of the project.

WP2 (Pilots) encompasses the pilots where the multiple novel materials, methodologies, and digital tools will be implemented and evaluated. Within WP2 the architectural and historical context of the pilot-cases will be identified and then determine the restoration requirements of the buildings. Moreover, systematic monitoring and evaluation of the interventions will be conducted.

WP3 (ICT Tools) is dedicated to the development of software tools, services, and applications that will support the digitization of historical buildings throughout its lifecycle for sustainable renovation and retrofitting. The obtained results will be built upon ICT and the key-enabling technologies of MR and VR as well as H-DT and AI algorithms.

WP4 (Materials) addresses the assessment of novel low-carbon binders and alternative reinforcements to produce advanced cementitious composites with enhanced sustainability features (e.g., self-healing and corrosion inhibition) to be used in CH retrofitting. Development, characterization, durability, and mechanical response will be tested at lab-scale, along with the recyclability of the cementitious composites, while performance optimization will be conducted via multiscale computational modelling.

WP5 (Energy) is devoted to the passive cooling and energy harvesting solutions that are compatible with the tradition of historic buildings. Development and lab-scale fabrication of radiative cooling materials will be followed by (larger-scale) prototype fabrication and testing. For solar energy harvesting, green, low-cost perovskite solar cells, able to be integrated in windows, facades and tiles will be developed and tested at lab-scale, along with the investigation of up-scaled fabrication.

WP6 (Dissemination) includes the dissemination and public engagement activities to raise awareness of European citizens and create a new notion on preservation, renovation, and use of Built Heritage of the 19th and20th century, to achieve multi-level impact and to set the first steps to commercial exploitation.




Timeline

The SINCERE project will develop in four main phases:

Phase 1 (M1-M12): Project setup. Definition of user requirements, use cases and scenarios, ethical issues and the social acceptance, system architecture, technical requirements, and data campaigns. Lab-testing of the materials. Testbed setup in Pilot 1 - Algete. Project web site and individual blogs for all pilot buildings.

Phase 2 (M13-M22): Alpha phase of the SINCERE D-HT platform and development of new materials and energy harvesting solution. 1st integration cycle. Pilot 1 Testbed experimentation leads to the 1st evaluation at Pilot 2 – Rhodes & Pilot 4 - Ostrava Demonstration Workshops. Citizen science activities. Launch of the Building Stories platform.

Phase 3 (M23-M33): Beta to Final version of the SINCERE H-DT platform, renovation and energy harvesting solutions. Feedback from Phase 2. Evaluation on the 1st Open Day Demonstration Workshop in Pilot 3 - Holon.

Phase 4 (M34-M36): Final SINCERE developments evaluation in 2nd and 3rd Open Day Demonstrations at Pilots 2 & 4. SINCERE conference to present the project outcomes, and the Handbook for professional implementation.




Actors

The target audience and key actors include:

Experts from CH value chain: industries (construction/renovation materials, construction chemicals, building products), universities and research institutions investigating the technologies developed by SINCERE, designers, engineers, architects.

Potential customers: specialized concrete markets and manufacturers of new concrete technologies (self-sensing, self-healing and energy harvesting features), PV manufacturing companies, Building Materials, ICT companies.

Building users/owners: connected to the three open pilot sites.

Facilitators: EC, policy makers, financial institutions, standardization and certification bodies, urban planners, district administrative bodies, municipal authorities, European Construction Technology Platform.

Citizens: Entrepreneurs, associations, communities, wider public, media.