Collaboration between construction and academia is vital if the industry is to successfully address customer needs, Tim Embley will tell a Constructing Excellence Members Forum on 8 June.
Tim, Group Innovation & Knowledge Manager at Costain, has been invited by Constructing Excellence to talk about how Costain’s ‘Engineering A Sustainable Tomorrow’ * strategy is helping Costain identify, develop and implement solutions that improve the long-term performance of its customers’ businesses.
Said Tim: “A productive industry is one that takes an integrated, collaborative approach to research to address the industry’s most pressing needs and quickly bring solutions to market.
“At Costain we believe an industrial research programme between academia and business helps to remove the risk from innovation, allowing our technical experts to demonstrate to the customer how the innovation can be correctly and efficiently implemented into their business. We have worked with Constructing Excellence to establish a fund that is supporting a PhD into new forms of innovation business models, and have invited Constructing Excellence members to participate and shape the research activity.”
Commented Don Ward, Constructing Excellence CEO: “There has never been a greater need or opportunity to collaborate with academia. Costain is an industry leader and has embraced research within its business model in an impressive and market-leading way to accelerate innovation. Costain’s success is down to understanding customer need, and then developing different kinds of research programmes that work alongside their operational teams to make sure the outcome will have an industrial impact.”
Added Jon De Souza, Business Improvement Manager at Galliford Try, Costain’s JV Partner on the Highways England Smart Motorways programme, and Chair of the Constructing Excellence working group for Higher Education engagement: “I’m delighted to be working with Costain and other CE members on this important topic for industry. The research agenda is fundamental to a high performing industry. As an industry we need to grow our research capability and stronger collaboration with academia is an important part of our industry success.”
If you would like to be involved in Constructing Excellence and its work in this area, why not go along to the Members Forum at the University of Westminster, 35 Marylebone Rd, Marylebone, London, NW1 5LS.
For more details and information on how to register for the event, go to https://constructingexcellence.org.uk/event/ce-members-forum-june-2016/
* ‘Engineering A Sustainable Tomorrow’ is the next phase of our Costain Cares commitment to build a sustainable business and is based on our four sustainability goals:
– Ensuring Costain is a safe and great place to work,
– Creating a better environment,
– Supporting our local communities and leaving a positive lasting legacy,
– Providing better solutions for the marketplace.
