16 January 2026

Welcome to the January 2026 edition of the STAR*track project newsletter.

Brought to you by the Built4People (B4P) Partnership, STAR*track is a Coordination and Support Action (CSA) funded by the European Union (EU) under Horizon Europe (HE).

STAR*track aims to support and expand the Built4People Innovation Cluster (B4PIC) Network initially nurtured by the Nebula Project, while supporting B4PICs and their members to deliver sustainable, people-centric innovation and accelerate uptake by regional value and supply chains.

Learn more about STAR*track.

Learn more about Built4People.

Learn more about Nebula.

Introducing the new Built4People Partnership and STAR*track project video

The STAR*track consortium is proud to present a new video which introduces the B4P Partnership, the B4PIC Network, and the STAR*track project, three interconnected initiatives that work together to support sustainable transformation across Europe’s built environment ecosystem.

With a goal of full decarbonisation by 2050, these initiatives aim to:

Channel €400m into research and innovation via the B4P Partnership.
Support regional Innovation Clusters across 20+ European countries and beyond, via STAR*track.
Help companies bring sustainable products to market via the B4PIC Network and STAR*track.
Expose the B4PICs to financing and development opportunities via STAR*track.

Built4People Network welcomes 16 new clusters

The B4P Partnership and the STAR*track project are delighted to welcome 16 new clusters into the B4PIC Network!

A B4PIC is a group of innovation-driven stakeholders from the built environment that engages in a tailored development and maturation process nurtured by the B4P Partnership and the STAR*track project.

Via this process, a cluster aims to expand its geographical reach, cross-sector collaboration, and multidisciplinary expertise, ultimately enhancing the sustainability and impact of its members’ innovations.

Each cluster shares the collective goal of increasing sustainability within the European built environment via innovation and collaboration.

All clusters entered the network as ‘Prospective’ clusters, however, six have now become ‘Emerging’ clusters since signing their respective charters at the recent Built4People Stakeholders Forum ceremony—read more about this below!

Find out more and view the full list of 16 new B4PICs here.

Fourth Built4People Stakeholders Forum hosted in Brussels

Participants on the B4P Stakeholders Forum stage in Brussels, Belgium.

The fourth Built4People Stakeholders Forum was held on 15 October 2025 in Brussels, Belgium. The event focused on innovation-driven affordable housing and the built environment, bringing together more than 80 policymakers, industry leaders, and researchers to discuss the green and digital transition in Europe’s construction sector.

Agenda highlights included:

High-level speeches on sustainability, affordability, energy efficiency and the importance of collaboration across European partnerships.
B4P & New European Bauhaus (NEB) sessions, showcasing NEB tools and funding facilities.
Technical sessions highlighting innovation in climate resilience, AI, sustainable materials, and decarbonisation.
Affordable housing panel exploring how research and innovation (R&I) can meet housing demand, support local innovation, and enable systemic, digital solutions.

A key part of the event was the B4PIC Charter Signature Ceremony, where new Prospective B4PICs signed their B4PIC Charters to join the network. You can read more about the ceremony below.

Watch a full recording of the B4P Stakeholders Forum here (viewing password: Bu25ReC1510F)

Six B4PICs sign charter at Built4People Stakeholders Forum

Members of the new B4PICs hold their signed charters at the B4P Stakeholders Forum signing ceremony.

Exciting developments for the B4PIC Network—six Prospective B4PICs have now signed their respective charters, each becoming an Emerging B4PIC and beginning their journey to implement roadmaps and advance through the network’s maturity process.

The B4PIC Network now encompasses participants from 20+ countries across Europe, and beyond, bringing together a total of 34 B4PICs—18 Emerging and 16 Prospective.

To introduce the ceremony, Anastasiya Yurchyshyna, ECTP, presented the state of play of and next steps for the B4PIC Network, before the following B4PICs signed their charters:

Congratulations to the new signatories!

Join us for the Built4People forum: When the EDIH and B4PIC Networks meet

On 12 February 2026, the Built4People Partnership will host the free, participatory forum “When the EDIH and B4PIC Networks Meet” at Buildwise (Zaventem, Belgium).

The forum will bring together European Digital Innovation Hubs (EDIHs), Built4People Innovation Clusters (B4PICs), and key industry stakeholders.
The highly participatory forum is designed to go beyond networking—turning connections into practical, real-world action, offering:

A clear understanding of each network’s services, capabilities, and strengths
An expanded network to promote your services and maximise collaboration opportunities
The chance to co-create tangible, immediate results
Expected outcomes from the event include EU funding concept notes, joint startup and event action plans, a shared presence at the Smart City Expo, and much more!

Learn more and register here.

Built4People Consortium gathers in Ljubljana for STAR*track’s General Meeting

Project partners gathered for the General Meeting in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

In October, project partners gathered in Ljubljana, Slovenia for STAR*track’s bi-annual General Meeting.

Hosted by project partner, ZAG, the meeting offered a chance for partners to collaborate, knowledge-share and progress plans to strengthen the B4PIC Network, with the collective aim of advancing sustainable and circular innovation across the European built environment.

Agenda highlights included:

A presentation of STAR*track’s value proposition, plus informative training sessions, for B4PIC managers.
A presentation on the latest exciting advancements of the network’s newest B4PICs.
A session on how to strengthen and grow the B4PIC Network and its members.

A big thank you to all partners for their engagement and contributions! The project’s next General Meeting will be held in Italy in May 2026.

Introducing the EU Innovation Finance Forum

The EU Innovation Finance Forum, a key element of STAR*track’s aim to facilitate access to finance opportunities, aims to unlock private innovation finance in clean technology and new business models in the built environment, with a view to increase EU competitiveness.

The first forum roundtable kicked off on 16 September 2025 with ten forum members including venture capitals (VCs), banks, corporate ventures, private philanthropy, and impact investors, covering funding ranges between one to five million.

Forum facilitators presented the European policy and public funding context for innovation in the transition to a sustainable built environment and sought insights on how to best embed private finance within that landscape.

Insights and discussion points included:

Innovations of interest: decarbonisation and energy efficiency, digitalisation, software and productivity, robotics, the physical built environment, sustainable materials, resilience.
Deal sourcing and evaluation: early-stage investors typically review around 1,000 start-ups annually to invest in five or six every year. They tend to rely on events, referrals, and targeted research to identify opportunities.
Barriers to scaling innovation: despite strong European public funding and policy signals, start-ups often face challenges in scaling and commercialising innovations, with some seeking opportunities in the US due to perceived stronger enabling environments. The need for demand creation and the risks of relying on regulatory drivers were highlighted.
Access to innovation finance: better matchmaking between innovators and financiers is needed, including tools to align innovation challenges, investor interests, and start-up needs, as well as guidance for innovators on engaging with appropriate public and private financiers.

The next roundtable, in November 2025, will delve into different financing strategies and approaches along innovation maturity scales.

STAR*track has been collaborating with other EU projects to showcase inspiring innovations that are driving forwards progress in the built environment, from digital tools to resilient solutions.

Learn more about these exciting and innovative projects below!

WeForming—improving building data management

Diagram of the WeForming Middleware architecture.

Buildings currently account for 40% of energy consumption and 36% of greenhouse gas emissions in Europe.

WeForming is an EU-funded project that aims to address these statistics by revolutionising energy management and transforming buildings from passive consumers into strategic players in forming the energy networks of the future, putting them at the forefront of Europe’s decarbonisation journey.

The project looks to develop Intelligent Grid-Forming Buildings (iGFBs) that can actively contribute towards the EU’s decarbonisation goals.

A key innovation in development via the project is the WeForming Data Space Connector, a user-friendly tool that enables buildings to easily share and access data with other systems.

The technology empowers building occupants and managers to optimise their energy consumption. By simplifying data exchange, it also makes it easier to create a network of buildings that can work together to manage energy use effectively.

This advanced technology is currently being tested in six European demonstration sites.

Learn more about WeForming.

MULTICLIMACT—fortifying building climate resilience

Diagram of the MULTICLIMACT Resilience Framework using the CREMA tool.

The MULTICLIMACT project addresses the urgent need to adapt the built environment to changing climatic conditions and increasing extreme environmental events.

The project looks to develop a mainstreamed framework and toolkit that supports public stakeholders and citizens in assessing and enhancing the resilience of buildings (including cultural heritage), urban areas, infrastructures, and territories against locally relevant hazards.

The project’s Climate Resilience Maturity Assessment (CREMA) tool supports decision-makers in evaluating and implementing resilience-enhancing interventions. By quantifying resilience scores and translating damage into monetary loss, CREMA enables users to identify vulnerabilities, prioritise interventions, and understand cost-benefit ratios, fostering informed, science-based adaptation and resilience planning.

MULTICLIMACT’s approach integrates socio-economic, life, engineering, and climate disciplines, promoting resilience-enabling actions via reliable, easy-to-implement, and cost-effective design practices, materials, and digital solutions.

Demonstrations across four diverse case studies in Europe ensure applicability across various scales and contexts, helping to foster a climate-proof and future-proof built environment.

Learn more about MULTICLIMACT.

DigiFab—revolutionising building renovation

The DigiFab project aims to revolutionise building renovation via a digital process chain, offering detailed assessment, co-creation methodology, and adaptable prefabricated modules with passive and active technologies to enable near-zero energy building levels and a reduced environmental impact.

DigiFab hopes to transform the renovation process via digitalisation, from the initial design brief right through to project finalisation.

The project integrates Building Information Modelling (BIM) for automated assessment and monitoring, offering users a significant opportunity to reduce installation time and costs.

This approach minimises uncertainties by leveraging accurate data collection and a high-quality digital twin to optimise designs and enable the “just in time” manufacturing of lightweight, recycled, and bio-based material modules with active envelope heating and energy management.

DigiFab’s technology is currently being implemented across three demonstration sites with diverse building typologies in Spain, Austria, and Greece.

Learn more about DigiFab.

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