InTimber: European Network for Timber Innovation in Construction

The project activities will include:

• Review the current state and geographic coverage of the timber sector
• Undertake an analysis of the potential supply of timber products available in each region
• Identify what barriers (cultural, skills, cost) exist to establishing timber supply for construction
• Develop a local and cross border programme
• Develop an online tool
• Creat a timber sector skills development
• Develop a pilot "Timber Innovation Acadamy/Park" in each partner region
• Develop case studies, demonstration projects, best practice guides and a regular expo
• Implement a timber sector SME business support programme

The aim of the project is to drive innovation in construction practices and associated development of local timber supply chains to provide high quality timber products.  This will drive a reductin in embodied carbon in new and refurbished buildings, and build stronger and more sustainable urban and rural supply chains for the construction industry, incouding job creation and SME competitiveness.

• Review of the current make-up of the timber sector and development of sectors skills plan across regions
• Review of suppy of timber materials and potential demand for timber in construction for the period 2015-20 across partner regions
• Development and implementation of cross border programme to promote timber in construction, including case studies, demonstation products and sites, online material, site tours, sills and training provision
• Linked to the above, development and implementation of online "inTimber" tool to promote the advantages andof using timber and to support the construction industry to understand and quanity the advantages of using timber, including an online carbon calculator tool to calculate high level savinds from quanity surveyor building component materials and volumes
• Creation of pilot "timber innovation parks" and  associated equipment to help industry to prototype, develp, test and certify high value timber products
• Annual expo in each partner region (or across regions) for suppliers in the sector and construction industy to understand potential products and advantages of using timber
• Development of a timber construction suppliers an dproducts database to be made available to the constrcution sector
• Dedicated business support programme to provide up to 15 hours of support to 80 SMEs in the timber construction supply chain across the partner regions over a 3 year period

UK partners:

BRE (Building Reseach Establishment) - BRE is a world-leading multi-disciplinary building science centre with a mission to improve buildings through research and knowledge gneration.

Forestry Commission - the main UK government body responsible for managing extensive woodland estate. 

West Suffolk College - has extensive experience with construction training and was a delivery partner in a previous Interreg NSR project Build with Care

Looking for partners particularly from Norway, Finland and Sweden