Scottish Timber Initiative Receives Funding to Prove Business Case for Using Scottish Timber in Building Structures

A consortium of partners, comprising of Construction Scotland Innovation Centre (CSIC), Edinburgh Napier University (ENU) Centre for Offsite Construction and Innovative Structures (COCIS), Scottish Forestry, Confederation of Forest Industries (Confor), and SNRG – have secured funding from Innovate UK’s Sustainable Innovation Fund to prove the business case for using Scottish timber to create the structural elements of buildings. Timber grown in the UK has historically been used for non-structural applications, such as fencing and palettes The initiative will manufacture the first Scottish-sourced cross laminated timber (CLT) and nail laminated timber (NLT) housing unit – including wall, roof, and floor – using the UK’s only vacuum press at CSIC’s 35,000 sq. ft. innovation factory in Hamilton. The demonstration project could ultimately lead to the mainstream use of home-grown timber in Scotland and the rest of the UK construction, as well as the development of the country’s first engineered timber manufacturing plant. The CLT and NLT superstructure are scheduled to be completed by end of this year and will be showcased at next year’s COP26 United Nation conference on climate change, set to take place in Glasgow between 1^st and 12^th of November 2021