The 1 st International Conference On Industrialised, Integrated, Intelligent Construction. 14-16 May 2008 109 Technology Monitoring in Construction: a Concept for Internet Supported Identification of Experts in the Definition of the Search Field for Technology Monitoring Sven Schimpf 1 1 Competence Center R&D Management, Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering Nobelstrasse 12, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany Sven.Schimpf@iao.fraunhofer.de Abstract. This paper describes a new concept for the Internet supported identification of experts in the definition of the search field for technology monitoring that takes into consideration the special requirements of the construction industry. This is done by a structured approach using the concept of technological definition in combination with the identification of experts for the identified technologies to further evaluate specific technologies for applications in the constructions sector. The research activity was carried out in the context of the research project I3CON that is funded in the 6th European Framework Programme Keywords Construction, Technology Intelligence, Technology Monitoring, Internet. 1 Growth of Technology in Built Environments Construction represents, with one quarter of total industrial output the largest industrial cluster in the EU6. Despite this, the investments in research and technological development are today with less than 1% of the turnover relatively low compared to other industrial sectors [7, p.100]. Buildings in their traditional definition are custom-built products with a relatively low level of technological complexity. Therefore, also the constant monitoring and planning of technological developments and their integration lags behind other industries [1, p.511]. But the requirements towards the construction industry are changing. The level of technological complexity in buildings is constantly increasing through the application of advanced information and building automation technologies and the application of high- technology materials. At the same time construction companies are faced by an integration of the building life-cycle. The application of alternative business models such as public private partnership or the public financing initiative is integrating operation, maintenance and refurbishment already in early building design phases. This leads to increased necessity of multidisciplinary technological awareness in product, process and service design of buildings. Latest technology developments hereby play an important role in the progress towards intelligent, industrially manufactured and integrated built environments. A technology monitoring system that is adapted to the requirements of the construction industry can hereby improve the short- and long-term oriented planning of technological developments and their efficient integration in today's and future buildings. 6 http://www.fiec.org , Dec07, EU: European Union Schimpf, Sven (2008) "Technology Monitoring in Construction: a Concept for Internet Supported Identification of Experts in the Definition of the Search Field for Technology Monitoring" Proceedings of the First International Conference on Industrialised, Integrated, Intelligent Construction, Loughborough, UK, May 2008, pp 109-115 ISBN 978-1-897911-32-7