A European Partnership on Resilient Built Environment
In a joint statement, Driving Urban Transitions (DUT) and Built4People call for such partnership with a clear mandate, dedicated resources and a strong place in the next framework programme.
The next Framework Programme for Research (FP10) must include a dedicated Partnership on Resilient Built Environment
Europe’s resilience depends on the buildings and places in which people live and work, the infrastructure that sustains essential services, and the strength of the communities that inhabit them. Climate resilience, preparedness and security require coordinated action across borders.
A resilient built environment must reduce its climate impact, adapt to the adverse effects of a changing climate and strengthen civil preparedness. This requires anticipating vulnerabilities, and its interdependencies, and ensuring that buildings, infrastructures and places can maintain essential functions during disruptions. It also requires affordable housing whose costs leave people room to meet other everyday needs, and accessible, inclusive places that foster wellbeing, belonging and trust. Giving people a voice in shaping their surroundings
strengthens social cohesion and communities’ capacity to prepare and act together. These ambitions must guide how we plan, design, construct, renovate and care for the built environment.
A dedicated partnership should develop and demonstrate the solutions needed to realize these ambitions. Its research and innovation agenda should advance affordable, resilient construction and renovation alongside social and organisational innovation. Through demonstration and experimentation, it should generate evidence to improve standards, procurement practices and investment decisions. This will accelerate uptake, strengthen European businesses and provide the knowledge and capabilities needed to support the
forthcoming European framework for climate resilience to be announced by President von der Leyen.
Realizing climate resilience, preparedness and security ambitions requires sustained commitments from the EU, Member States and the built environment sector, with cities and regions as partners in setting priorities and testing solutions.
Long investment cycles and the need to understand how buildings and places perform for people over time demand the kind of shared research and innovation agenda and durable funding that a Partnership can provide.
We therefore calls for the establishment of a Partnership on Resilient Built Environment in FP10, with a defined scope, dedicated resources and a clear mandate. Its development can draw on the knowledge and tested approaches of Driving Urban Transitions and Built4People, including DUT’s cooperation among Member States and experience in local experimentation and community participation, and B4P’s industry expertise and innovation networks. These provide a valuable foundation for a new research and innovation agenda focused on a resilient built environment, bringing together the the construction sector, infrastructure owners, urban and regional authorities, public authorities, civil society and civil protection actors, technology providers and research organisations to develop, test and scale solutions that protect people, maintain essential services and strengthen Europe’s resilience, competitiveness and preparedness.