e-Safe (H2020)


e-SAFE energy and seismic affordable renovation solutions – project officially started on October 1st 2020, will develop a competitive advantage in the construction market, combining both energy and seismic upgrading for the renovation of buildings. The project is a 48 months long funded project under the call H2020-LC-SC3-EE-2019 of European Union’s Horizon 2020 with a total budget of about 4.6 M€.

In geographies with earthquake risk, such as Turkey, making existing structures resistant to disasters is of great importance in environmental and socio-economic aspects, as well as ensuring the life safety of the people.

e-SAFE defines and develops a market-ready deep renovation system for non-historic buildings, whose ability to uptake the EU market relies on the combination of decarbonization goals with earthquake safety (where applicable), indoor comfort, reduced implementation time and cost, affordable financial options, reduced occupants’ disturbance, increased aesthetic and functional attractiveness. This is reached through an iterative process based on a multidisciplinary methodology, where traditional modelling and experimental research are integrated with tools for promoting financial feasibility, knowledge co-production, mutual learning and public engagement. The result is a new deep renovation system that benefits from the full integration between technological innovation and process-based innovation.

From the technological point of view, the innovative idea of e-SAFE is to cover the outer shell of buildings with modular panels for thermal-acoustic insulation (e-PANEL) with a structural system that increases seismic performance, according to two basic solutions (e-CLT and e-EXOS), applicable to most buildings and adaptable to the specific level of seismicity and other boundary conditions. The technical solutions are completely based on prefabricated wood-based components and dry technologies and are implemented operating exclusively from outside the buildings. Therefore, compared to the current combined energy efficiency and seismic retrofit, the e-SAFE solution is faster, cheaper and less invasive for residents. The project will verify the effectiveness and replicability of the proposed methodology in 3 selected pilot projects in European seismic regions. The aim is to identify and modify potential drawbacks that could arise during co-design, installation and operation, but also to evaluate the energy, seismic and comfort performance guaranteed on site.

SAMPAS will be one of the technical partners of e-SAFE responsible for developing the Building Energy Management System (BEMS) integrated with the e-DSS tools while also actively participating in Stakeholders’ engagement, Demonstration and Communication, dissemination and training activities.

The project is carried out under the main coordination of Italy Catania University and consists of 12 partners from Italy, Norway, Belgium, Netherlands, Austria and Greece:

  1. Universita Degli Studi Di Catania (UNICT), Italy
  2. Alma Mater Studiorum – Unıversıta Di Bologna (UNIBO), Italy
  3. Moverim Consulting Sprl (MOVERIM), – Belgium
  4. Istituto Autonomo Case Popolari Di Catania (IACP), – Italy
  5. Norges Miljo-Og Biovitenskaplige Universitet (NMBU), Norway
  6. Engineering – Ingegneria Informatica Spa (ENG), – Italy
  7. LIMITED (Deloitte), Cyprus
  8. Buildings Performance Institute Europe Asbl (BPIE), – Belgium
  9. Pink Gmbh – Energie- Und Speichertechnik (PINK), – Austria
  10. SAMPAS Information and Communication Systems Tic. A.S. (SAMPAS) – Turkey
  11. Salfo and Associates Sa – Engineering & Management Consultants
  12. (SALFO), – Greece
  13. Timmerfabriek Webo Bv (WEBO), – Netherlands

This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 770469.