The Role of Industry – University Collaboration in the Transformation of Construction

Summary

Industry and universities can work together – there are so many ways in which they can collaborate, whether this means developing ideas together or exploring problems to find a way forward – collaborating on research in areas of mutual interest, however, is both important and timely for the industry at the moment.

It is fair to say that most universities and many construction industry players share common objectives around the creation and sharing of knowledge and ideas. For example, they share the notion that investment in Research and Development (R&D) helps them to stay ahead of their competitors, whoever they may be. R&D helps firms to obtain new knowledge, create new technologies, products and services – and likewise, universities flourish because of the research that they do.

The UK Government’s recent spending review signals a clear ambition to grow research and innovation in the UK, and the 2020 Research and Development Roadmap highlighted the need to connect researchers and firms. The recently launched Construction Playbook provides many opportunities for them to work together to advance industry transformation.

Importantly, construction firms can grow and thrive if they can build on research undertaken in universities – so it is in everyone’s interests to make this relationship even more successful.

In this digest, the TCN+ Network explore how industry and universities can and do work together to develop and increase the stock of knowledge and ideas, and in doing so, support the ongoing transformation of the construction sector and firms in it. They focus on connections between industry and the academic research community (rather than industry’s links to students on taught programmes, via sponsorship and placements, etc.). They begin by highlighting the benefits, and the practical ways that industry and university academics work together to provide thought leadership, co-produce novel managerial and theoretical insights, before exploring some ideas around research collaboration between industry and universities. The digest then provides some suggestions on how these relationships might be further enhanced to support the rapid sharing of knowledge to address the key transformational challenges we face.