Sections

What we do

The National Platform promotes strategic, collaborative research because we believe this is a vital catalyst for long-term, industry improvement.

The built environment industry has to compete for recognition with technology-driven sectors such as aerospace and pharmaceuticals. To be effective in securing research funding and influencing our regulatory environment, we have to be more focused and work collaboratively.

Our mission, therefore, is to work across industry, to identify and define the priority areas for research and development and influence both UK and European Commission research funders.

By looking at the wider built environment rather than purely construction, we believe that we can deliver the potential of research to improve the built environment for all its stakeholders.

Objectives

The National Platform objective is to win funding for research and development in priority areas of the built environment sector.

We aim to acheive this objective by:

  • being the voice for UK built environment research
  • reviewing the UK Strategic Research Agenda, identifying key research priorities with a 5-10 year horizon
  • influencing the activities and strategic priorities of relevant funding bodies, including Innovate UK, EPSRC and the European Construction Technology Programme
  • becoming a key influencer of both public and private research funding, and a catalyst for increased strategic research investment by the sector.

Activities

The National Platform actively engages with a wide cross-section of the industry.

We evaluate current stakeholder opinion, through the use of surveys and workshops, which help to translate opinion and evidence into research priorities.

Looking 10 years ahead, we also consider the implications for construction and the built environment from societal and other challenges and assess a range of approaches, dependant on audience and desired outcomes.

Outputs

We also engage with the others to deliver specific outputs, which include:

  • stakeholder surveys
  • high-level reports
  • specific scoping studies.