Dear Colleagues
On behalf of the Board of the SBEnrc I would like to sincerely congratulate Professor Peter Newman for being awarded the Ord
er of Australia at Monday’s Australia Day Honours.
Peter was awarded Officer (AO) in the General Division of the Order of Australia for distinguished service to science education as an academic and researcher, through contributions to urban design and transport sustainability, and to the community.
Peter is a Program Leader with Research Program 1: Greening the Built Environment, and has been a long-time supporter and insightful leader within the SBEnrc, and our predecessor organisation, the CRC for Construction Innovation.
Welcome to our new partner
I’m pleased to announce that the Board can now confirm Griffith University has joined the SBEnrc as a core member and our lead Queensland research provider. They will now take a place on our Board and be a part of the Centre’s strategic decision making process. We are now even better placed to deliver valuable research solutions to our Queensland and Australian industry partners.
At Griffith we strive to achieve value through enterprise, so it is logical that we become a core partner of the SBEnrc. We look forward to collaborating with the SBEnrc so we can all strengthen our domestic and international research capabilities. We recognise the well-established governance and management processes in place together with the experienced, capable industry and research collaborations.
Professor Ned Pankhurst, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research, Griffith University
Industry workshops to shape our future
This week we have run two national industry development workshops (in Brisbane and Perth) to help identify new projects for commencement in mid-2014 to extend through to the end of 2015. Bringing together existing and new partners will allow research end users (industry and government) to align future SBEnrc research activities to real industry needs through applied research. The workshops have provided valuable input into the development of the future research themes.
We anticipate that fresh research projects will build on the experience and expertise of our industry, government and research partners in the Centre’s priority areas – ‘Greening the Built Environment’, ‘People, Processes and Procurement’ and ‘Productivity through Innovation’. The three research streams focus on environmental, social and economic sustainability respectively, areas identified by national industry stakeholders as key areas that will drive productivity and industry development in the built environment industry.
Industry attendees have presented research ideas that are directly relevant to their identified business challenges. The workshop participants as a whole then had the opportunity to review proposed research activity going forward. It is expected that Board-supported research projects will be developed by research leaders and industry partners, with confirmation at SBEnrc’s Governing Board meeting in May for commencement soon after.
The workshops were formally opened by Neil Scales, Director-General, Queensland Transport and Main Roads (Brisbane) and Peter Gow, Executive Director, Building Commission, WA Department of Commerce (Perth) who each highlighted the critical importance of applied research in advancing today’s built environment industry and in building enduring industry-research partnerships.
Best regards
Keith