New £5 Million Programme Of Investment To Transform Construction Industry

New £5 Million Programme Of Investment To Transform Construction Industry

Innovative solutions to help transform the construction industry in the UK can now be explored thanks to a new £5 million research leaders programme, intended to deliver better-performing homes, better jobs and better value for taxpayers, all part of the Industrial Strategy.

In all, four new research projects have now been announced by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), aimed at increasing assembly speed, saving money and improving the quality of building in the UK. These will all share the £5 million pot, ranging in their scope from developing ways to organise teams of robots on or offsite to using digitally designed 3D-printed concrete components created offsite.

Another project now being set up is looking into how voice-activated artificial intelligence and augmented reality can be integrated with component assembly to speed up construction and increase productivity – all without compromising health and safety.

Challenging research programmes are to be supported by the Research Leaders award, offering those successful with the opportunity to build and develop groups of talented individuals around them so they can pursue their research vision as part of the Transforming Construction Challenge.

“Technologies being developed in the UK provide a significant opportunity to transform the way we build, such as the use of augmented reality to improve design or robotics to aid complex building assembly.

“Through projects such as these, the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund allows us to catalyse innovation across the UK’s vital construction industry improving productivity, sustainability and safety,” UKRI chief executive professor Sir Mark Walport remarked.

Richard Harrington, construction minister, made further comments, saying: “The use of artificial intelligence, digital techniques and offsite manufacturing, help us harness new methods of working. This delivers on the government’s construction sector deal, which pledges to build better-performing buildings, using less energy and providing better value for taxpayers.”

UKRI has also announced £13.3 million to fund 24 collaborative research and development projects, delivered by Innovate UK, addressing the three core aims of the Transforming Construction Challenge programme. These are the design and management of buildings through digitally enabled simulation, the construction of quality buildings through offsite manufacturing approaches and powering buildings with active generation and storage.

This isn’t all that’s going on in the construction sector at the moment, of course. In October last year it was also announced that a new Active Building Centre has been given the green light to help remove barriers and accelerate market adoption of new solar-powered building design, with plans approved by chancellor of the exchequer Philip Hammond.

He said at the time that £36 million in funding will help support new green technology that could lead to cuts in energy bills, drive down carbon emissions and result in the creation of better homes and workspaces.

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