On Monday, September 26, the official inauguration of Built, Buzzi Unicem's new technological innovation laboratory, was held in Vercelli at the San Giuseppe complex of the University of Eastern Piedmont (UPO).
Built (Buzzi Unicem Innovation Lab and Technology) represents the highest evolutionary stage of the company's Research & Development, and joins other existing entities such as the plants' labs and the Wilhelm Dyckerhoff Institut in Wiesbaden, Germany. 
Attended by several authorities and academics (including UPO Rector Gian Carlo Avanzi) as well as the Mayor of Vercelli Andrea Corsaro, the event was organized to officially present the partnership agreement between the university and Buzzi Unicem and to showcase the potential of the new laboratory, which has already been active since January.
In addition to the location in the modern spaces of the San Giuseppe complex, the agreement stipulated in 2018 provides for synergistic activities between basic research and the industrial sector's application approach. UPO can expand its curriculum in materials science and technology by providing students and researchers with study and work experience in the corporate environment, while Built is happy to welcome and cultivate projects for the development of innovative and highly sustainable building materials.
Built is organized across two floors, with a large room dedicated to concrete testing, a chemistry and physics lab equipped with numerous state-of-the-art instruments for materials characterization, a chemical laboratory accredited according to ISO/IEC 17025:2018, and a mortar lab. Temperature- and humidity-controlled curing chambers for curing specimens and specific areas for mills and crushers have also been provided. Twelve chemical technicians and researchers with scientific backgrounds currently work in the lab.
“We are very pleased to inaugurate this facility,” said the technical director Luigi Buzzi, “as it represents not just a simple laboratory, but a new way of working to meet the complex challenges of the future, from the decarbonization of the production process to the search for increasingly high-performance and sustainable binding agents."
The Director Fulvio Canonico added: “The lab is fully operational, and we are satisfied with the results of our work and the contribution to innovation we make to the group. The atmosphere in Built is very stimulating, partly because of the possibility of interacting with the university campus around us."
The presentation concluded PhD Day, dedicated to the awarding of PhDs organized by UPO as part of Research Week.