BRE forms partnership with universities

BRE forms partnership with universities to promote built environment research.

Sir Neville Sims, newly appointed chairman of the BRE Trust, has announced formation of a strategic research and development partnership between United Kingdom universities and the Building Research Establishment which aims to strengthen the U.K.'s capacity to carry out leading-edge built environment research and promote its practical application.

The Government's welcome for the new partnership was signified by the presence of Elliot Morley, Minister of State at the Department of the Environment and David Hughes, director general of the Department for Trade and Industry's innovation group, who both spoke at the inaugural reception at 30 St.

Mary Axe in the City of London, recognised as one of the construction industry's best demonstrations of advanced technology and energy conservation.

Sir Neville, now head of the Government's Sustainable Development Task Force, said that BRE would act as an effective bridge across which academic knowledge can pass to those at the delivery points of construction projects.

It would also promote the return flow of information to the universities to help them formulate the research that the industry requires.

The four centres currently involved in this partnership, with a fifth to come, are: BRE Centre for Fire Safety Engineering at the University of Edinburgh; the Centre for Innovative and Sustainable Construction Materials at the University of Bath; Centre for Energy Utilisation Research at the University of Strathclyde; the fourth is at the Welsh School of Architecture within Cardiff University, focusing on all aspects of sustainable building design.

Sir Neville said the four themes had been chosen because they were at the forefront of key issues underpinning a more sustainable environment, and in which BRE has particular technical strengths as well as involvements in networks for effective knowledge transfer.

Each centre is led by a director who is also appointed to a new research chair within the centre.

Professor Jose Torero has been appointed as the first director and professor at the BRE Centre for Fire Engineering.

Dr Peter Walker has been appointed professor and director of the BRE Centre for Innovative and Sustainable Construction Materials.

Directors are yet to be appointed for the BRE Centres at Cardiff and Strathclyde.

The research chairs are being funded jointly by the BRE Trust and the four universities, with the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Welsh Development Agency contributing to the chairs in fire safety engineering and sustainable building design respectively.

Each centre and its associated research chair will have common objectives: * seeking and promoting new areas of research.

* fostering cross disciplinary and other programmes to benefit industry.

* providing innovative programmes of education and training.

The BRE Trust will also be providing full-time PhD studentships via each centre and so will realign its post-graduate education programmes around the research topics of the centres.

But if a compelling and strategically important area of PhD research comes forward from outside the Partnership the trust has promised it will give it due consideration.

Sir Neville concluded: "I would encourage all organisations involved in the built environment - companies, research and technology organisations, other universities and government departments to take note of this initiative and help it develop further for the benefit of UK plc".

In a comment on the latest developments in promotion of research and innovation, Professor Farshad Alamdari, BRE's chief scientist, said he was sure that establishing the new centres of excellence will give research and development in the built environment a much needed boost, allowing universities and the BRE to exploit research opportunities in partnership.

Nick Raynsford leads research foundation for house-building.

The NHBC Foundation founded by the regulatory body National House-Building Council in partnership with the BRE Trust, is to invest more than £500,000 in research and development in its first year of effort to support the United Kingdom's house-building industry.

It will be led by Nick Raynsford M.P.

who has been appointed first chairman of the new foundation.

Mr Raynsford, who represents the London Boroughs of Greenwich and Woolwich in the House of Commons, will be supported by an advisory board made up of leading figures from the housing sector, among whom are Richard Simmons, chief executive of the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE), Professor Steve Wilcox of the Centre for Housing Policy at the University of York, David Pretty, chief executive at Barratt Developments plc, and June Barnes, chief executive of East Thames Group, a registered social landlord with the Housing Corporation.

The first practical example of the foundation's work is the launch of a new collaborative web site called www.homein.org to pool all available research on modern methods of construction.

Nick Raynsford says that by levering funds and working with partner organisations and other stakeholders the foundation aims to generate practical support for everyone contributing to the national housing agenda.

Expressing the Government's support for the initiative, Yvette Cooper, Housing and Planning Minister at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, said that the new foundation could make a big difference by ensuring that the work it does fits into a wider approach to sustainable communities - not just the bricks and mortar, but actually looking at the way in which housing has to be part of proper communities.".

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