The built environment must be widely considered in the RDI roadmap, and RDI investments in the sector must be increased. Investing in research and development is an investment in the future, which yields benefits both at the company and society level: ensuring economic growth, developing competitiveness, improving employment, increasing skills and solving social challenges.
Our goal
- Accelerating the green transition of the real estate and construction industry. The innovation program started with RRF funding will be continued and additional resources will be provided.
- More resources are being added to the RDI and competence areas that are critical for the construction industry, which are
- urban and transport economics
- repair construction
- infrastructure construction
- digitization
- In addition to Business Finland, other RDI funding mechanisms will be developed so that public funding can also be utilized for the development of domestic market-driven industries.
- The long-prepared low-carbon concrete program will be launched, which includes medium- and long-term investment needs.
- The standardization of space element systems is promoted, which improves, for example, the cost-effectiveness of wood construction and increases its scalability possibilities.
In the future, the biggest challenges are related to achieving Finland's carbon neutrality goals, which requires significant investments in both new technologies, materials and productivity development.
In terms of the circular economy of construction and the leap in productivity in the industry, the most essential and cost-effective measures are the reuse and recycling of construction materials and the reusable material flows used in the manufacture of construction products.
By increasing R&D investments, it is possible for us to raise the Finnish construction circular economy and, for example, the binder and additive technology of low-carbon concrete to the international top of the field, which also enables significant technology exports.
The responsibility for R&D investments lies on both the private and public sides. The construction industry has committed, together with other industries, to increase Finland's RDI investment to four percent of gross domestic product by 2030, in accordance with the recommendation of the parliamentary RDI working group (Report of the Parliamentary R&D Group).
More information
Antti Aaltonen
Director, Construction Development
antti.aaltonen@rt.fi + 358 40 514 3626Confederation of Finnish Construction Industries (CFCI)