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RetroNetZero Regulatory Science and Innovation Network
The RetroNetZero Regulatory Science and Innovation Network is an Innovate UK-funded project focusing on unlocking the adoption of innovation for domestic retrofit.
Through the network, the project is working with both innovators and regulators to identify regulatory challenges to innovation and seek ways to overcome them. The project will give innovators guidance on the steps needed to get their products adopted, as well as helping policymakers and regulators develop their approach to new technologies.
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Background
Residential buildings account for 12% of the UK’s carbon emissions and are the second highest emitting sector in the UK economy. The Climate Change Committee has identified that more heat pumps and energy efficiency measures need to be installed rapidly to meet our climate targets. (The Seventh Carbon Budget - Climate Change Committee).
To retrofit at the scale needed, we will need innovation in products, materials, technologies and services, as well as efficient processes and techniques to deliver net zero solutions for domestic retrofit.
Regulations are failing to keep pace with innovation in the retrofit sector. This is slowing the introduction of potential new solutions which could contribute to the rapid upscaling of retrofit and help the UK meet its net zero carbon targets.
Regulatory science is at the heart of the project: ensuring the use of scientific methods to assess the safety, quality, and efficacy of products, as well as supporting the development of new tools and standards to help make regulatory decisions.
RetroNetZero project
The RetroNetZero project is focusing on where regulatory science can provide solutions and address evidence gaps, so that policy and regulation can be pro-innovation and maintain the fundamentals of safety and consumer protection. Working with stakeholders, the project is identifying and seeking solutions to current and emerging challenges, providing guidance for innovators on how to navigate the requirements of regulation, and helping policymakers and regulators identify, understand and assess different approaches to regulating new technologies.
Contact RNZ@bregroup.com for more information.
Current activity
The project partners are working with stakeholders to identify specific regulatory challenges and to develop solutions to accelerate the adoption of innovation. Work is underway on the following challenges:
Challenge 1 (Resource): Innovation Adoption Pathways
Challenge: The route to adoption for domestic retrofit innovation is currently considered obscure, complex and unclear.
Solution: RetroNetZero is collating a set of innovation adoption pathways to help innovators understand the steps needed to achieve adoption of their innovation.
Challenge 2 (Resource): Regulatory Science Capacity Directory
Challenge: Innovators are uncertain where to go to validate their retrofit technologies and who could support them with collaborative research and development (R&D) solutions.
Solution: A database of organisations which provide validation and R&D support services.
Challenge 3 (Feasibility): Co-benefits of Domestic Retrofit
Challenge: Retrofit needs to deliver healthy homes as well as net zero carbon.
Solution: Identify where the wider benefits of retrofit, such as reduced risk of damp and mould, improved indoor air quality and reduced risk of overheating, could be incentivised through regulation; set out opportunities for regulatory science to evidence and/or support co-benefits, such as through tools, data or standards.
Consortium
Project RetroNetZero RS&IN (Retrofit Net-Zero Buildings - Regulatory Science and Innovation Network for unlocking adoption of innovation) is funded by Innovate UK: Regulatory Science & Innovation Networks (Project 10139469). The consortium led by BRE includes National Retrofit Hub, Construction Products Association, National Energy Foundation, Constructing Excellence and Planet Mark.