List of questions

Energy Use in Buildings

How do we enable accelerated innovation within the complex supply chains used in delivery of construction projects?

The construction sector involves complex supply chains with multiple contract to contractor links throughout most build projects. My perception is that this can hinder opportunities for innovation, as the contractor levels create opportunities for perceived value add?

How do we engage lessons learned from other sectors to support accelerated delivery of factory built project delivery?

Scotland and the UK economy has a long and rich history of innovation in engineering and manufacturing.

BIM Workshop - Future direction.
Companies and representatives in this session: Paul Allford - CITB, Jon de Souza, Mohammed Al-Sharif, Adrian Shilliday - Galliford Try, Craig Mason - Kier Construction

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Business Model Innovation. Costain currently support SMEs to innovate, with little or no return on investment. We are interested in exploring with academic teams the most cost-effective way of investing in innovation. This could include exploration of the whole plc business model, employee buy-in and the use of HMRC’s EIS scheme which offers opportunities for cost-effective investment.

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Climate resilience

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How we can use innovative products and materials (e.g. self-healing concrete) or innovative approaches to material production (e.g. 3D printing)

To follow

How we can use big data to support our project delivery processes

To follow

BIM Workshop - Future direction.
Companies and representatives in this session: Paul Allford - CITB, Jon de Souza, Mohammed Al-Sharif, Adrian Shilliday - Galliford Try, Craig Mason - Kier Construction

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Health by Design

Designer’s earliest decisions can fundamentally affect the health of the working population. A step change in how we manage health hazards and risks needs to be given to those involved in construction, maintenance, repair, cleaning, refurbishment and future demolition of all or part of the structure as well as the health of the future users of the workplaces they have designed. Occupational disease remains prevalent because it is often seen as difficult to manage as:
Occupational disease can have a long latency
Interventions to prevent exposures are not immediately obvious.
Health by Design has never been done before, and this approach requires new data, research, technology and skills to enable our designers to deliver

Functional fitness and Resilience - wellbeing agenda

 A fit and healthy workforce – we have an ageing population, and a need for more skilled workers to deliver HS2 – we have the challenge of designing work so that more people can work well, for longer to address intrinsic health conditions such as cancer and the implications of the growing obesity problem.

How can we more accurately predict the health and associated benefits of improved streets and public realm design.

Part of City Strategy response in answer to City Deal funding. How do we achieve joined up thinking.

How can we economically analyse a structures response to forced vibration when equipment sensitive to movement is located at the centre of a suspended span of flat slab construction?

Research Lab with sensitive equipment.

How can the principles of the Circular Economy benefit Edinburgh, in social, economic and environmental terms?

Government Initiative. We should work together to solve this puzzle around circle of life

How can we best capture carbon footprint of the City in terms of infrastructure operation generally (covering buildings and all forms of transportation).

Part of City Strategy response in answer to City Deal funding. How do we achieve joined up thinking.

BIM Workshop - Future direction.
Companies and representatives in this session: Paul Allford - CITB, Jon de Souza, Mohammed Al-Sharif, Adrian Shilliday - Galliford Try, Craig Mason - Kier Construction

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How can the Construction Industry better utilise modern methods of construction including off-site modularisation?

We are looking to build more residential accommodation and therefore need to understand better the supply chains that operate in the market sector including modular construction.

How should the construction sector approach innovation?

The sector is often not seen by others as innovative and the focus of innovation may be narrow in terms of new materials or methods of construction. What are the innovative business processes, productivity measures or technologies from other sectors we should be considering?

How can we attract more home grown talent into the sector?

The industry is facing recognised skills shortages in some areas. However, in some other countries it is seen as a more attractive career. Is the image of the industry a barrier? What motivates people to enter the industry in other countries that is missing here and what can we do about it?

How can we improve our materials management & stock systems on site, so we operate more in a JIT enviroment, to reduce costs & increase efficiency?

SMG are a house builder & wish to be more efficient in the ordering, storing and use of materials on site, through adopting materials management systems used in other sectors.

How can we reduce waste in every sense from our Housebuilding operations, through improved productivity & reduced labour and material waste ?

SMG are a house builder and wish to better understand, reduce material and labour waste/downtime on site, through improved practises on site and within the development process.