THE CONSTRUCTION CHALLENGE COMPETITION

The government has invited businesses to bid in two competitions worth up to £36m to fund collaborative R&D and demonstrator projects.

Both competitions focus on modern methods of construction, digital and whole-asset performance. UK Research and Innovation is providing the funding through the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund’s Transforming Construction Challenge.

The two competitions are as follows:

Competition 1: Transforming UK construction – collaborative R&D.

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will invest up to £10m in UK businesses undertaking collaborative research and development projects. Projects should go beyond the state-of-the-art in improving productivity, quality and performance of the UK construction sector.

The project must focus on one or more of the following themes:

• Digital information management, tools, systems and standards;
• Modern methods of construction and platform-based approaches;
• Whole-life asset performance, including active buildings;
• Business models, procurement, analytics, benchmarking and metrics;
• Financial, assurance, warranty and lending products.

To lead a project your organisation must:

• Be a UK registered business of any size or a research and technology organisation;
• Collaborate with other businesses, research organisations, public sector organisations, academic institutions or charities;
• Include at least one micro, small or medium-sized enterprise;
• Carry out the project work in the UK;
• Intend to exploit the results from, or in, the UK.

Your project’s total eligible costs must be between £150,000 and £1.5m.

Competition 2: Transforming UK construction demonstrator projects.

UK businesses can apply for a share of up to £26m for practical, demonstrator projects in modern methods of construction, digital and whole-life asset performance. This competition aims to invest in approximately ten world-leading practical demonstrators. They must establish improvements in productivity, quality and performance of the UK construction sector.

Demonstrators are the application of approaches, deployed at scale, that aim to improve all aspects of a built assets lifecycle. These will include:

• Validations of new business models;
• Digital approaches to design, construction and management;
• Advancements in modern methods of construction;
• Approaches to whole-life performance of a building or assets;

Both competitions open on 28 August, and close at midday on 30 October.

Source: Infracstructure Intelligence