SBEnrc Newsletter – May 2018 – Sustainable Built Environment National Research Centre

Industry collaboration yields five new SBEnrc projects

Applied research is critical if we are to continue to advance Australia’s built environment industry.

One of the ways SBEnrc distinguishes itself from many research centres is by our unique ability to translate current industry challenges to real-world projects. Every 12-18 months we convene National Industry Research Workshops across Australia to gain industry’s perspective on built environment business challenges and innovation needs.

At the workshops industry and government professionals present ideas directly relevant to their business challenges. Researchers are invited to listen and understand industry needs and assist with developing project ideas that can be applied in the real world.

This process allows us to continually refresh the Centre’s research agenda.

Following our workshops in February 2018, our Governing Board has now approved five new research themes with projects to commence in October 2018 and run for 18 months.

The Centre is now working with industry collaborators in developing the scope, research methodology and targeted deliverables with a goal of ensuring national issues are addressed across the breadth of the housing, building and infrastructure sectors.

The current working titles for the five themes are:

Mapping the Social and Affordable Housing Supply Chain
Sustainable Communities of Tomorrow: Building for People and Place
Strategic Data Analytics: Urban Transport Congestion Management
Unlocking Facility Value Through Lifecycle Thinking
Waste Management and Recycling for Construction and Demolition Waste

Thank you to all those who attended and contributed to the workshops. I would like to especially thank our hosts in each city: Queensland Department of Housing and Public Works (Brisbane), New South Wales Roads and Maritime Services (Sydney), Aurecon (Melbourne) and Main Roads Western Australia (Perth).

If you would like to be involved in future National Industry Research Workshops, please get in touch.

United Nations dissemination of Australian SBEnrc research

SBEnrc Project Leaders Professor Peter Newman and Dr Charlie Hargroves attended a United Nations Workshop in Tokyo from 26 February to 2 March 2018 along with 2 PhD students. The workshop, themed ‘Railways as the Low Carbon and Sustainable Transport Development Solutions’ was directly related to two current SBEnrc research projects:

The course included a series of inspiring presentations from around the world, including presentations by Peter, Charlie and PhD student Sebastian Davies-Slate along with workshops facilitated by Charlie and PhD student Daniel Conley to explore the theme of how to engage the private sector in public transport investment. The feedback from the 15 countries represented at the workshop was very positive and participants expressed keen interest to know more about the research we are undertaking in Australia.

Addressing the non-conforming products challenge

Non-conforming products are a huge issue in Australia. We are addressing this with a new project: N on-conformance Prevalence, Testing Capacity and Nature amongst Specific Building Product Categories.

From March 2018, Swinburne University, in conjunction with Project Chair Ivan Donaldson, former General Manager of the Australian Building Codes Board, will carry out specific testing and procedure evaluation for a range of fire and building elements.

Social housing research

Social housing continues to be a topic raised by industry and government stakeholders at our National Industry Research Workshops across Australia .

Since 2014, the SBEnrc have supported research in this area and to date have carried out three relevant research projects on social housing led by Dr Judy Kraatz , Griffith University, in collaboration with state governments, industry and national community housing bodies.

Click on the links below for further details on the SBEnrc’s contribution to this important area of national research.

Rethinking Social Housing (2014-15)
Valuing Social Housing (2015-17)
Procuring Social and Affordable Housing (2017-18)

Upcoming events

AUBEA Conference 2018, Singapore

The Australasian Universities Building Education Association (AUBEA) promotes and improves teaching and research through communication and collaboration. It comprises academics representing universities providing education in building-related fields in Australasia and beyond. Curtin University’s School of Design and the Built Environment will host the next AUBEA Conference themed Educating Building Professionals for the Future: Innovation, Technology in the Globalised World at Curtin’s Singapore campus 26-28 September 2018.

CIB World Building Congress 2019, Hong Kong

International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction (CIB) World Building Congress 2019, Constructing Smart Cities, 17-21 June 2019, Hong Kong, China.

Climate-KIC Australia’s ClimateLaunchpad Competition

Apply now for ClimateLaunchpad – the world’s largest green business ideas competition across 35 countries. Your idea can be a mind shift in urban mobility, a revolution in the food chain, a rethink of waste management, a breakthrough in energy production or efficiency or any other idea that addresses climate change. The most innovative and promising ideas will make it to the global finals in Europe with the chance to win a ticket to the high level EIT Climate-KIC Accelerator program and prize money.

Finally, I would like to encourage you to subscribe to our YouTube channel, where we have created a collection of videos to showcase our research outcomes.

Best regards,

Dr Keith Hampson, Chief Executive Officer
Sustainable Built Environment National Research Centre

Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia
k.hampson@sbenrc.com.au

Our challenge is to continue growing the value and impact of our applied research more deeply and broadly across Australia. The Sustainable Built Environment National Research Centre (SBEnrc) is acknowledged as an excellent example of a CRC that has graduated into an independent organisation delivering unique industry, government and research collaboration.