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£50K HEFCE funding to boost LSBU construction workers research pilot
A £50k award from HEFCE has been given to LSBU to support a research pilot which will encourage students in architecture, engineering and constructionLondon South Bank University (LSBU) is today announcing a £50K award from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), to support a research pilot conducted by the University’s School of The Built Environment and Architecture. The pilot is looking at encouraging students and staff within the architecture, engineering and construction arena to collaborate and better work together on joint projects. The research pilot is set to run from December 2016 until May 2018 for a period of one and a half years.
The project is being led by Jennifer Hardi, Senior Lecturer at the School of The Built Environment and Architecture, together with her colleagues Steve Pittard and Professor Andy Ford, who were both in the original bidding team.
Jennifer Hardi said, “The culture within the UK’s construction industry currently shows a tendency towards silo working, where different professionals working on the same project often fail to communicate well with one another about the different stages of that project. In the past this has proved extremely frustrating and even led to delays in projects being completed and deadlines being missed.
“This is not a sustainable or efficient way for the UK’s construction industry to be working if it is to retain its competitive edge in a post-Brexit economy.
“By trialling the new methods with LSBU students initially, my research team hopes to develop a model of multi-disciplinary, collaborative working that will eventually be rolled out across the industry, among professional architects, quantity surveyors and engineers.”
Professor Charles Egbu, Dean of the School of The Built Environment and Architecture, said:
“I am delighted to be able to announce today a £50k funding pledge from HEFCE to support research that will benefit both our students and the British construction industry, by exploring ways in which construction professionals can work together better. This investment will also help to strengthen LSBU’s strong commitment to supporting our science, architecture and engineering research programmes.”
HEFCE’s Head of Learning and Teaching, Sarbani Banerjee, said:
“HEFCE’s catalyst call for innovations in learning and teaching attracted a large number of exciting and high quality bids from a wide range of universities and colleges. We are pleased to be supporting LSBU’s research project, and we look forward to working with them and with the other project institutions to share lessons learned across the sector.”
HEFCE has made the award to LSBU from its Catalyst Fund call for innovations in learning and teaching.