Is Portugal on the fast track to digitising its construction industry?

The Portuguese construction industry has made a big step towards its digital transformation. The GrowingCircle project – an international initiative between Portugal and Norway to set up a digital product catalogue in Portuguese and promote digitalisation – has now evolved into producing a Portuguese national data dictionary.

Portuguese construction companies and associations will be able to use the newly developed data dictionary in Define (Photo: AdobeStock)

The project has been carried out by Instituto da Construção, part of the University of Porto in Portugal and Trondheim University in Norway. It has also been supported by the EEA Grants 2014-2021, which are jointly financed by Iceland, Lichtenstein and Norway.

Portuguese construction companies and associations will be able to use the newly developed data dictionary in Define – a solution for the construction industry managed by the industry itself, that can be further enriched with more industry-approved data templates. The initial input on the type of data templates that would be needed is being prepared by Instituto da Construção. The solution will help to accelerate the entire decision-making and approval process, ensuring swift and successful completion of construction projects.

“Digital Product Passports are being discussed in the context of the new EU Ecodesign and Construction Products Regulations. The construction industry can take useful shortcuts in its implementation, as we are already setting up digital product catalogues under a common and interoperable framework,” says Pedro Mêda from Instituto da Construção.

“This international collaboration will enhance the digitalisation of the Portuguese construction sector. The newly launched Portuguese data dictionary in Define will enable construction actors to improve information exchange and collaboration across the entire value chain and achieve compliance with regulatory requirements,” says Lars Chr Fredenlund, CEO of Cobuilder – the software provider that develops and maintains the Define platform on behalf of the industry.

The bilateral initiative between Portugal and Norway continues with the development and improvement of the Portuguese data dictionary in Define and will be expanded by implementing additional software solutions to further boost digitalisation efforts on a national scale.