Panorama

PANORAMA / SUMMER 2020 / No. 73
CBC: CROSS BORDER COOPERATION
EUROPEAN RESEARCH PROJECT ON BIO AND
WASTE RESOURCES FOR CONSTRUCTION:
FOSTERING A CIRCULAR ECONOMY
Supported by the Interreg VA France (Channel) England, with
funding from the ERDF, the Sustainable Bio & Waste Resources
for Construction (SB&WRC) project was a cross-border R&D collaboration
between four universities, two associations, one small
business, and one global corporation, to transform underutilised,
non-valued agricultural co-products and waste into commercially
viable low-carbon building insulation materials.
Successfully delivering what it set out to achieve, SB&WRC conceived and produced three innovative, low-carbon
prototypes of thermal insulants for the construction industry, from common agricultural by-products (wheat straw
and maize pith), and recycled waste (polyester duvets), all widely available across the Programme area.
In mobilising renewable resources to improve efficiency in buildings, the project enabled a reduction in CO 2
emissions and the
preservation of natural resources such as the minerals used in the production of conventional building insulation materials.
Of equal importance was its ambition to raise the awareness of French and English construction stakeholders of the
advantages of these new building materials, to encourage them to continue the development of prototypes after
project end with a view to commercialisation, and to accelerate their adoption more generally. Over 19 000 building
professionals engaged with the project through events, workshops, production and testing of mini-prototypes and
operational deployment of the prototypes on pilot sites, conferences, two online communities – one in French and one
in English, newsletters, and an online survey to understand perceptions and expectations.
At the scientific level, cross-border cooperation has made it possible to bring together all the rare technical skills essential
for the scientific success of the project and to reach a critical mass of stakeholders able to influence market
trends which a national partnership would find difficult to achieve.
The EU will finance 69 % of the overall project budget, estimated at around EUR 1.8 million (EUR 1.26 million from the ERDF).
https://www.construction21.org/static/sbwrc-project.html
https://asbp.org.uk/sbwrc
There is no one-size-fits-all recipe for regional development
in general and for territorial cooperation in particular. However,
principles such as partnership, transparency, subsidiarity and
civil society participation combine to form an essential asset
in development policies. They reinforce cooperation between
the public and private sectors and have the potential to link
efficiency with decentralisation and active involvement.
only promotes cohesion within the EU but also projects
European values beyond the territory of the Union in a very
effective way. All of this is crucial to support delivery on
the ground of the ambitious objectives of the European
Green Deal.
These principles are very much at the heart of what Interreg
is about. In all its forms, through building trust and
respect among people, Interreg is an instrument that not
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