Euronews is a pan-European television channel broadcasting news in over 160 countries, reaching more than 170 million households in Europe. The European Commission partnered with Euronews programme Futuris to present news about European scientific and technological research projects. Recently, Futuris presented a program showing how new technologies are influencing the food and housing sectors and, consequently, the environment. Research shows that by 2050 demand for food will increase 70 percent, which will undoubtedly cause major changes in food production and will also have an important impact on the environment. In addition to the food industry, the construction sector is also one of the largest polluters of the environment, responsible for one third of all global CO2 emissions with the construction, maintenance and decommissioning of buildings. Scientist are convinced that wood is the right answer to this problem as it is an environmentally friendly building material and carbon neutral (or even negative). Research at the InnoRenew CoE is devoted to this topic, and a Euronews team, led by Italian journalist and producer Claudio Rosmino, decided to show this problem from the research institute’s perspective.

Euronews prepared a Futuris contribution that presented how the InnoRenew CoE is contributing to preservation of the environment with several research projects aimed at developing new building materials based on wood or other renewable natural resources. In all research projects, InnoRenew incorporates an interdisciplinary perspective. By combining different disciplines, the institute is gathering success in both research and transfer of knowledge to industry.

The Euronews team spent two days in Koper and visited InnoRenew’s wood testing lab, observed hemp fibre experiments and experienced a device for testing levels of human stress. Everyone is kindly invited to watch the video – the InnoRenew CoE story begins after the sixth minute (6:32) – to learn how the institute is addressing the most important challenges of today’s world with research projects supported by the European Commission.

If you want to learn even more about the InnoRenew CoE, its research collaborations and visiting researchers, please view the newest video prepared by the InnoRenew CoE team.