Partnership with DesignBuilder awarded outstanding grade for Industry Transforming Outputs

The UCL Institute for Environmental Design and Engineering has been working in partnership with DesignBuilder Software Ltd to develop advanced tools for energy performance analysis of buildings on a co-funded Knowledge Transfer Partnership project with Innovate UK. The project, led by KTP Associate Nishesh Jain along with academics Prof Dejan Mumovic and Dr Esfandiar Burman, has been awarded the highest ‘outstanding’ grade from UKRI Innovate UK for their transforming contributions to the industry.

DesignBuilder provides building performance simulation software that helps the AEC industry to deliver efficient, healthy buildings more quickly, easily, and enjoyably. This project responds to a policy and market driven demand for buildings that are increasingly energy and carbon efficient. With the help of DesignBuilder, the Institute was able to develop processes and tools to fill a knowledge gap within industry.

The project outputs included major contributions to two CIBSE Technical Memoranda, influential industry guidance documents published by The Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE).

• CIBSE TM54 (2022) titled “Evaluating operational energy use at the design stage”
• CIBSE TM63 “Operational performance: Building performance modelling and calibration for evaluation of energy in-use” (part of CIBSE TM61-64 series of memoranda on operational performance of buildings)

Nishesh’s active participation in supporting building simulation by sharing his research to improve industry best practices was one of the key reasons for him winning the CIBSE Building Simulation Young Modeller Award 2021.

One of the academic papers linked with the project case study also won the Barker Silver Medal, awarded by CIBSE for the most cited paper and impact published in Building Services Research and Technology (BSER&T) Journal during 2020.

Besides the project’s tools and processes developed for in-use performance assessments of buildings, these high impact publications and achievements were exceptional and justified the overall project grade achieved. We would like to pass on our congratulations to the entire team: Associate Nishesh Jain, Academic team led by Dejan Mumovic and Esfand Burman, DesignBuilder team led by Andy Tindale and David Cocking, KTP Advisor Mark Matchett and the entire KTP team at UCL Innovation and Enterprise

Find out more about the partnership with DesignBuilder on the UCL Innovation & Enterprise website.