Från projekt till digital evolution: Hokus pokus eller smart finansiering?

Research Project, 2026 – 2027

Smart Built Environment has funded a large number of projects aimed at contributing to the digitalization of the built environment sector. As the programme approaches its end, there is a need to understand what happens to project results when they are put into practice. New digital solutions, ways of working and forms of value creation do not enter an empty space. For their continued use and development, they need to become embedded in established structures of resources, practices, relationships and actors. This process involves adaptationsand as actors and resources in the sector are interdependent, such changes may also create tensions and frictions that constrain, alter or hinder further development. The project aims to develop an in-depth understanding of the digital evolution of the built environment sector by investigating how results from Smart Built Environment-funded projects become embedded in the sector’s networks and how this develops over time. Through a qualitative study, 10–15 implemented Smart Built Environment projects wi l be fo lowed up. Project material wi l be combined with interviews with project managers and other actors central to the continued development of the results. Each project wi l be studied as an innovation journey to trace how results are taken forward and adapted as they encounter existing structures, what dependencies, tensions and frictions emerge, and how these a fect continued embedding. The innovation journeys wi l then be compared to identify recurring patterns and variations. The study wi l thereby provide knowledge about how new solutions and ways of working become– or struggle to become – part of more enduring structures in the built environment sector. The results wi l provide sector actors with insights for continued development and innovation activities, while also contributing to Smart Built Environment’s concluding knowledge transfer and to understanding the sector’s continued digital evolution.