The construction sector plays undoubtedly an important role in every nation economy in Europe. In the European Union (27) the construction industry generated a total production of 1305 billion € and employed 13.2 million persons. This represents 10% of GDP and 7.3% of the total employment. Directly or indirectly even 26 million workers in the EU are depending on the construction sector. The residential sector represents 46% of the total EU production, the non-residential sector 31% and civil engineering 23%.

Construction sector is not only economical significant but also for environmental impacts. Buildings are responsible of 40 % of total EU Energy consumption and 1/3 of GHG emissions during their construction and operation stages. More than 50% of all materials extracted from earth are transformed into construction materials and products.

The European Commission has focused on overcoming fragmentation in European Research Areas http://ec.europa.eu/research/era/index_en.html  (ERA). Eracobuild is one initiative to address this problem. Eracobuild is one component of a European innovation system for research and innovation in construction and operation of buildings.

From 2004 to 2007 the first ERA-Net on construction ERABUILD has been established as a strong platform in ERA among the member states for funding RDI (research, development, and implementation) in the construction sector. 17 members of 10 countries had been successfully involved in planning and preparing a trans-national R&D programme. ERABUILD has built an important network of funding organisations and stakeholders engaged in joint research programmes.

The second ERA-Net in construction, Eracobuild, starts from nov. 2008 with 31 Partners, from 16 countries. The overall aim of Eracobuild is to develop deeper, more durable co-operation and co-ordination between national funding bodies across Europe, to increase the quality and impact of research in the construction sector and so its performance, and that of the assets it creates. The challenge for Eracobuild lies in the combination of different policy fields (Economical, Environmental, RDI) on national, transnational and European level.

Since Eracobuild represents the national governments owning funds for research related to construction and operation of buildings, it provides a natural platform for the sector to find a financial match for their research needs. It will also be a key-player in developing research infrastructure in European research Area.

Linked to the ECTP’s http://www.ectp.org Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) Eracobuild has so far defined two thematic frameworks for cooperation that will be further developed within the Eracobuild framework:

1. Sustainable renovation, aimed at improving the building quality and energy efficiency of the existing European building stock.

2. Value driven processes, aimed at improving supply chain and client integration and adding value to the processes and outcomes of the sector.

Other subjects will follow during the running process.