The research project “Timber-steel-hybrid beams for modern multi-storey buildings” targets practical market implementations of innovative timber-steel composite elements, leading to increased market shares of timber and wood-based products and components for polyvalent modular multi-storey building technology. The idea is to optimize the geometry of the timber-steel-hybrid construction regarding cost effectiveness and load bearing capacity, e.g. application of cold formed "U" profiles made of thin steel plates.

The research project results benefit at several levels of the European industry. Firstly, it offers utilization for waste products of the wood industry, thereby improving the exploitation of the utilization chain of forest products. Secondly, it provides a marketable component system for building construction that optimally uses timber sections. Thirdly, it contributes to reducing carbon emissions by storing forest waste in construction elements for a long period instead of burning it for warmth or energy. The results are especially beneficial to wood-rich countries in Europe with wood production chains as well as a steel tradition. In a larger context, such products support rapid-assembly construction methods that use prefabricated dry elements to increase construction efficiency.

These products open new markets to the wood industry with a potential of 10 to 20 % of the European construction market. Wood-based alternatives to conventional construction also open opportunities to European countries to reduce their carbon emissions in agreement with the Kyoto protocol.