DigiPLACE

DigiPLACE was an EU funded project with a budget of €1M, which started on 1 September 2019 and finished on 31 May 2021. The project had 19 partners, 13 of which directly represented the construction industry. There were also three Member States involved. The aim was to create a road map for a digital industrial platform for construction in Europe, which would be an operating system that integrates different technologies and various relevant applications and services used in Building Information Modelling (BIM) and also in other digital processes used increasingly in construction. The long term purpose is to facilitate the uptake of digitalisation in construction in the EU, by identifying and tackling the obstacles, such as the lack of compatibility of applications and lack of open access to data and interoperability of existing systems. The project reporting is being finalised and possible follow up being discussed amongst the partners.

Why FIEC is dealing with this topic

FIEC was one of the original organisations that called for support for the construction industry, after the Digitising European Industry initiative supported other sectors, with considerable funding to facilitate the digital transformation of those sectors. Contractors are at the heart of the construction value chain and this platform needs to meet the requirements of construction companies. Therefore, FIEC was a partner in the project. Its specific role was to co-ordinate the Advisory Board. With the involvement of this Advisory Board and a larger network of more than 1000 stakeholders, the project defined a “Reference Architecture Framework” for the platform. In brief, that means recommended structures and ways of integrating IT products and services to form an overall solution for the construction industry, at EU level. This reference architecture embodies the best practice gathered from the stakeholders, in order to design the optimal delivery method for these specific technologies.