New i3P report identifies innovation investment priorities to transform the construction sector

The Infrastructure Industry Innovation Platform (i3P) has released the Innovation Investment Priorities Report. The report’s intention is to identify and agree the innovation investment priorities for the sector that will drive most value, and where there is the greatest opportunity for transformational change. 

The report was produced in the context of the UK’s Transforming Construction Challenge, which aims to enable the sector to produce safe, healthy, efficient building using the latest digital manufacturing techniques.

The research findings supporting the report were reviewed at an industry workshop in June which agreed and endorsed a Framework in which to locate future innovation projects.  The Framework enables investment gaps to be identified that if addressed will help meet the industry’s Construction 2025 aspirations.

The report recommends four strategic themes that the industry needs to prioritise in order to deliver on the Transforming Construction Challenge aims:

• Articulating Demand – Creating Capable Clients 
• Addressing the Supply side – Industrialising delivery
• Preparing construction for a zero -carbon world
• Ensuring health, safety and well-being for all

It also highlights recommended actions for the industry, which the i3P membership committed to collaborate on to ensure transformational change in the sector: 

• Develop an agreed model of the construction asset lifestyle
• Demystify industrialisation
• Introduce a new project delivery model decision point
• Consolidate Government demand as stimulus 
• Learn from others
• Develop funding models to support pre-competitive industry activity 

Dr Kell Jones, the report author, comments, 

This has been a fascinating exploration of the innovative activity underway in the i3P membership, highlighting investment gaps and innovation collaboration opportunities. This report marks an important step forward by providing a framework within which these and future collaborative innovation projects can be located. It sets a course towards a more structured approach to delivering on Industry ambitions and the Government’s Transforming Construction Challenge, and suggests early steps on that journey.

i3P is a client-led community of organisations with a focus on innovation. Its purpose is to transform the performance of the infrastructure sector, delivering improved productivity and growth along with better, more sustainable infrastructure assets for our society and our economy.

Read the report on the i3P website. 

Dr Kell Jones is a Research Fellow at the Bartlett School of Construction and Project Management working on the Transforming Construction Network Plus (N+). After practicing as a Chartered Accountant, he retrained into Architectural Technology before completing his Doctoral thesis which explored how to positively influence the innovation adoption decision in construction projects. 

How is the i3P working to transform the sector?

The Infrastructure Industry Innovation Platform (i3P) is an independent innovation community governed by representatives from its member organisations. Membership is open to clients and their supply chains across the infrastructure industry.

i3P helps transform ideas into opportunities and practical solutions; providing a mechanism for strategically directing innovation to address the major challenges facing the infrastructure industry.

The Transforming Construction Network Plus (N+)

Dr Kell Jones is a Research Fellow for the N+, a new national community to unite and transform the UK construction industry.

With £1m to invest in a raft of new research projects over the next two years, the N+ mobilises a new movement in the construction community, bringing together experts from a range of disciplines to tackle the most pressing problems across the digital, energy, construction, and manufacturing space. 

Find out more on the N+ website.