IES has announced that it has won ten European funded Research and Development projects.
The projects are worth 4m Euros over three to four years and are aimed at creating new innovative technology and solutions for Masterplanning, Smart Cities, Retrofit and Real-Time Control. The projects are funded by the European Commission’s FP7 scheme, Marie Curie and Cost Action.
It is predicted that the projects will see the company hire more than 20 staff.
Masterplanning is the aim to bring urban design, operation and the smart city together. IES is creating decision support tools for city architects and urban planners with respect to how to design their city and its subsystems in a holistic manner.
Smart Cities is focused on how a city can operate intelligently. The R&D division are investigating the interactions between a portfolio of buildings the electricity grid and Renewable Energy Technologies.
Real-Time Building Control is where IES research focuses on how the simulation environment can be exploited to intelligently control the building. This includes investigation into Model Based Control for Fault Detection Identification Analysis, Optimisation of the Building while in use and Predictive Control based on future weather data.
Retrofit design and decision making focuses on how to use simulation to adapt and upgrade existing buildings to be sustainable and energy efficient throughout their lifetime. The aim is to provide tools that will assess the way in which current buildings are operated and help find solutions that will be adaptable over time, as well as for performance contracting.
Don McLean, founder and managing director, IES said: "We’ve invested a lot of time and effort to enhance our R&D efforts and it is paying off. I believe that our uniquely powerful combination of expertise and technology is a major reason we have been so successful."
