During these months, a number of project activities were concluded and important events related to the METAWOOD project were held, having the main objective of coordinating the activities of the Partnership, constant monitoring of the project’s progress and shared planning of the activities planned in 2025.
Summary of activities completed in 2024
In December 2024, the first activities were completed, preparatory to the development of those planned in 2025. In relation to the topic of research and development of materials, the activity of devising Metamaterials was concluded with the realization of a report on the scientific procedure, containing the studies conducted by the University scientific partners regarding the possible solutions in the literature, in order to test in 2025, applications with Metamaterials aimed at improving the sound absorption and fire resistance of walls and floors of multi-story wooden buildings. Regarding the macro-activity specific to the development of Algorithms for the determination of LCA (environmental impact assessment) related to wooden building constructions, the selection of technologies and construction types of multi-storey wooden buildings, to be considered for subsequent software development, has been finished.
Finally, for the topic aiming at the improvement of training in the wooden building supply chain, the phase of detection and analysis of training needs and main professional profiles in the sector has been finished. Professional figures, training needs have been identified, screening their current shortages through skills analysis. Given the cross-border nature of Interreg programs, the analyses and activities were developed in the Italian and Austrian project territory.
Progress of project activities
At present, full-scale design of metamaterial prototypes and related acoustic tests performed on various layouts of adopted wood wall solutions are being carried out. Subsequently, the design and production of a slab mock-up and subsequent testing will be carried out at the University of Innsbruck. Based on the final solutions that will have yielded satisfactory results in terms of noise impact reduction, the specialized fire resistance analyses will be carried out.
Regarding the development of LCA Algorithms, a demo version has been developed and is being methodologically validated by Italian and Austrian companies and specialized professionals. In parallel, the final environmental impact calculation algorithms for selected types of wooden building constructions are being developed. In the second part of the year, through focus groups with stakeholders in their area, all project partners will perform the final validation. The activity of developing specialized training of the wood building construction supply chain, will continue throughout 2025 with the study orientation activities, and the design of two specialization courses for engineers and architects is being finalized. This will be followed in the final part of the project by the delivery of the courses and their validation.
In 2025, the exploitation of the results has been initiated, which includes an initial phase of impact analysis and marketing, and then the organization of events in each territory for technology transfer and dissemination of the results obtained in the areas of metamaterials, LCA algorithms, and training.
The project has the end of January 2026 as its deadline.
Meeting with the project partnership
On February 6 and 7, 2025, the 3rd in-person project meeting was held at the Apri Formazione partner office in Vicenza. The main focuses discussed were: analysis of the progress of ongoing activities since 2024, planning of activities started in 2025 and with planned execution in the first part of 2025, highlighting deadlines and responsibilities of the partnership, of all activities. On an almost monthly basis, meetings are held on an online platform in order to constantly monitor the progress of activities.