News
BIM Alliance Develops
Published: 15 May 2020
Four projects funded by the Horizon 2020 initiative, including the Belfast Met led BIMcert digital construction project have set up BIM Alliance, a space for collaboration to explore areas of mutual opportunity and to minimise the energy footprint in construction.
BIMcert is a European wide project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, aimed at providing a training and qualification scheme for the skills required to support the implementation of BIM , (Building Information Modelling) across the construction supply chain. The built environment is recognised as one of the largest consumers of natural resources, producers of carbon emissions and source of energy wastage. BIM provides a collaborative design, build and manage process that offers the opportunity for efficiencies for the construction industry in energy, materials and time. BIM can reduce waste, inefficiencies in the supply chain and allow for more sustainable design choices.
Belfast Met were the lead partner on the BIMcert project which was launched in Belfast on March 6th, 2018 by leading EU BIM expert Dr James Harty. Belfast Met in partnership with six European partners , (Construction Industry Training Board, Co Antrim, Future Analytics, Dublin, Technological University, Dublin, IST, Portugal, IECE, Macedonia and EIHP, Croatia) secured a £1.25 million Horizon 2020 grant to develop the training toolkit. Belfast Met were the first further education college in the UK to win funding from the Horizon 2020. By using the BIMcert training modules on the BIMcert platform construction employees can now obtain pan European recognition for their skills. The workers can learn online at their own time and pace.
Now the founding members of BIM Alliance, BIMcert, BIMplement, Net-UBIEP and BIMEET aim to develop an alliance of 80 partners across 25 EU countries dedicated to leverage the power of Building Information Modelling to achieve high energy performing buildings. Partners will have access to shared resources, a digital library of tools, modules and blended materials.
The Alliance will include the creation of a “Centre of Excellence for Digital Construction”. There will be a “Skills hub” in charge of exploring the future of skills in the built environment and the ways in which new professionals can be encouraged into the industry.
The initiative will support smart construction, including offsite manufacturing, digital technologies and high performance buildings. It will be an open space to share knowledge and best practices, to inspire collaboration and highlight new opportunities in the digitalisation of construction. All partners will be able to deliver BIM training, accreditations, digital certification of skills and issue an innovative EU wide BIM passport. All these initiatives aim to assist the built environment in upskilling and reducing its energy footprint and has the ambition to become the key to transforming and changing the face of the EU building industry. Sustainable building projects and companies are welcome to join BIMalliance. The key goal is to be the technical body for the digital transformation of the built environment for Europe.