The Team

Research Team:

• Dr. Núria Forcada is the co-principal investigator.  She is a Full Professor from the Department of Project and Construction Engineering (DEPC) from the UPC and a member of the Group of Research and Innovation in Construction (GRIC). She is the director of the UPC-Construcía Chair Hub of circular economy applied to construction and industry (2021-2025) and the IP of the project Developing advanced holistic models for the circular construction (2023-2026). Her main research expertise is in digitalization and construction circularity. As co-IP of the project she will lead the WP1 Project Management. She will lead main tasks linked to digitalization: System development (WP3) and the integration of visualization, collaboration and reporting techniques (WP4).

• Dr. Kàtia Gaspar is the co-principal investigator.  She is an Associate Professor from the Department of Architectural Technology (DTA) at the UPC and a member of the GRIC. She is a building engineer (BArch) and PhD in Construction Engineering. Her main research is focused on building performance. As a member of the UPC Building Laboratory, she has participated in pre-diagnostic tasks and evaluation of proposals for intervention of the built park. As co-IP of the project she will co-lead WP1 Project Management. Thanks to her expertise on building performance, she will lead the WP2 related to Circularity metrics and data sources analysis. Her previous participation on building diagnosis projects will allow her to lead the Definition of model validation (T5.1). She will also lead the development of the dissemination and plan (Task 6.1.).

• Dr. Xavier Roca is an Associate professor at UPC and a member of the GRIC. Dr. Roca is the director of the School of Industrial, Aerospace and Audiovisual Engineering of Terrassa (ESEIAAT) and is mainly involved in activities related to research knowledge transfer to private companies. Dr. Roca is an expert in sustainability and circularity in construction and project management. He will participate in the definition of the circular metrics (T2.1) and lead the dissemination plan (WP6) thanks to his previous involvement on research knowledge transfer activities.

• Dr. Carles Serrat is an Associate Professor specializing in Applied Statistics within the Department of Mathematics at the UPC. With a PhD and BS in Mathematics, he is also a founding member of the inter-university Consolidated Research Group of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics (GRBIO). His research focuses on AI and the IoT for Smart Cities. Dr. Serrat brings a wealth of experience from leading research projects in areas such as sustainable transport optimization and data analytics in smart cities. Thanks to his expertise in data analysis, he will lead the development of the system in WP3 and contribute to WP4 for the data integration.

• Dr. Stanislav Aidarov is an Assistant Professor in the DEPC at the UPC and a member of the GRIC. His research is focused on sustainable, resilient, and circular construction; decarbonisation strategies; and decision-making in the built environment. He has also participated in the development and characterisation of advanced materials through experimental programs, results analysis, predictive modelling, and sustainability-oriented evaluations in terms of social, economic, and environmental impact. Thanks to his experience in experimental programmes, he will lead the demonstration of the effectiveness of the model for different scenarios (WP5).

Working team:

• Dr. Cristina Sendra is a Chemical Engineer with a Master's degree in Environmental Science and a PhD in Industrial Ecology from Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain. With over seven years of full-time research in the Chemical Engineering Department at UAB, she focused on Material Flow Analysis of industrial and economic ecosystems, collaborating with international institutions. Since 2008, Cristina has been actively involved in the Cradle-to-Cradle Certification Program, leading and participating in over 50 projects. As the Circular Construction Manager at Eco Intelligent Growth, she specializes in the built environment and conducts Material Health Pre-Assessments. Additionally, she holds the position of Assistant Professor in the Chemical Engineering Department at UAB.

• Dr. David Font, is a Department Manager at Eco Intelligent Growth. He is an environmental scientist (Bsc), renewable energy engineer and manager (MsC), and industrial ecologist (MsC and PhD) from Leiden University. His main research focus is on sustainability impact assessment, input-output analysis, econometrics, and rebound effect modelling. His expertise both from a research and consultancy perspective will be key to the activities of WP2, WP3, WP4, WP5 and WP6. He is currently the chair of the LCSA Section of the International Society for Industrial Ecology, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship awardee, and a two-time Graedel Prize awardee for Junior Author Best Paper.

• Dr. Paula Gordo is an architect (BArch, MSc) and PhD in Architecture, Urbanism, and Environment, specializes in Building Information Modelling (BIM) and interoperability. With a background blending construction and digital technologies, her industrial Ph.D. with ALTO Ingenierie and the Abbé Grégoire Doctoral School in Paris focused on the interdisciplinary application of BIM from technical and sociological perspectives. Now at ColomaArmengol, she drives BIM-based digital transformation for sustainable building processes. Leveraging her expertise, she will contribute to T3.1 (data gathering and standardization) and WP4 (visualization, collaboration, and reporting techniques). 

• Bruno Sauer is an architect with a Master's in Architecture and Urbanism, CEO of Green Building Council España (GBCe) and Vice-Chair of the Climate Positive Europe Alliance (CPEA). He is also an Associate Professor at the Universidad Europea de Valencia. Through his leadership, he leads initiatives that promote energy efficiency, sustainability, and the circular economy and is well-positioned to participate both on WP2 providing expert support and guidance through the workshops to review and assess the tentative circularity metrics and on the dissemination of the project results (WP6).

• Dr. M. Reza Hosseini, is a prominent academic in the field of digital engineering and circular construction, currently holding the position of Senior Lecturer at the University of Melbourne's School of Design. Additionally, he is a member of the Mediated Intelligence in Design research laboratory at Deakin University. His academic background is in Civil Engineering, with an MSc in Construction Engineering and Management, and a PhD in Virtual Design and Construction. He will participate and give support on the system development and its integration into a digital model (WP3 and WP4). He will also participate on the dissemination of the project results (WP6) in the internationalization part by organizing seminars at University of Melbourne.  

• Dr. Ludovico Iovinio is a Computer Scientist and associate professor at the GSSI – Gran Sasso Science Institute in L’Aquila. He is expert on software and model driven engineering applied to IoT, Smart City and embedded Systems. He will give support on the system development (WP3) and on the dissemination of the project results (WP6) in the internationalization part by organizing seminars at the GSSI.  

• Roger Vergés is a Ph.D. candidate at UPC since 2023 and an active member of the GRIC since 2021. His research is focused on AI-Enhanced Circular Construction for Climate Change Mitigation and Building Sustainability Improvement. He has a master on Artificial Intelligence with Deep Learning. His expertise spans data science, computer science, and artificial intelligence. Moreover, he brings valuable experience from the private sector, particularly in areas such as project management, sustainability, and BIM. He will give support along all the tasks of the project but mainly on those related to the model development in which he will provide his expertise on Artificial Neural Networks and AI.  

• Dr. Hamidreza Alavi is a Senior Lecturer in Construction Informatics at Oxford Brookes University and an Academic Affiliate at the University of Cambridge. His expertise lies in artificial intelligence, digital twins, BIM, and data-driven decision-making for the built environment, with applications in infrastructure management, construction automation, and facilities and asset management. He has previously held academic and research positions at the University of Cambridge and the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), and has been a Visiting Scholar at the University of British Columbia (UBC). He will participate and proivde support on the system development and its integration into a digital model (WP3 and WP4). 

The team introduced above, working on the CIRCULAR1st project, brings proven expertise and capacity, as reflected in the indicators below across publications, PhD supervision, project participation, and knowledge transfer.