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Innovation Consultancy in Digital Construction: A North of Tyne Region Initiative to Build Business Resilience

For businesses in the construction and built environment sector, the new year brings opportunities and challenges in equal measure.

Whilst the sector is projected to grow in the year ahead – according to construction insight experts, Glenigan – for many companies, there are obstacles to navigate and overcome. Economic and political uncertainty, labour and skills shortages, the impact of new building safety regulations and the pressing need to respond to the climate emergency are amongst the key challenges that face the industry.

Between now and summer 2024, Northumbria University – through the International Centre for Connected Construction (IC3) – is able to offer a series of free events and tailored support designed to help organisations tackle some of these big issues and in turn build skills, knowledge and resilience.

Innovation Consultancy in Digital Construction: North of Tyne Region

For businesses looking to innovate with digital technologies but struggling to find the expertise, funding or time to tackle major challenges and implement ideas, this new consultancy scheme can provide practical support. Funded through the North of Tyne’s Digital Business Pipeline, the scheme matches organisations with an expert academic or business leader who can share experience, knowledge and support to address a specific issue.

The consultancy provided can be on any aspect of digital construction to help address some of the key challenges the sector is facing, such as:

• Retrofit
• Achieving net zero
• Data science
• Urban regeneration
• Productivity
• Safety and resilience.

Up to six days of funded one-to-one consultancy is customised to the needs of each eligible business.

To find out more or to sign up, click here

This scheme is being delivered through IC3, a globally recognised centre that champions the use of digital technologies and connected construction to drive productivity and improve safety.

Building Safety Act Training

In 2022, the Building Safety Bill received Royal Assent and became an Act of Parliament. This landmark Act is bringing about historical change to building legislation and requires a shift in how all new building projects are approached.

As the industry gets to grips with the implications of the Act and the obligations that businesses need to meet, IC3 and Northumbria University have partnered with BIM Academy to provide practical training on this important legislation in the form of three half day workshops funded through the North of Tyne Combined Authority.

The first workshop (8 February), an introductory CPD session, will explain the background to the Act (including the Grenfell Tower tragedy), provide an overview of primary and secondary legislation, detail the changes affecting all projects and the specific impact on high rise residential buildings, and explain additional updates since the registration deadline in October 2023.

The second workshop (15 February) will take a deeper dive into Gateway 2 and Gateway 3 on higher risk buildings and cover best practice guidance on how to build a safety case, including digital information management.

The third and final half day workshop (7 March) will provide participants with the opportunity to review their own organisation’s portfolio of work, competencies and processes in line with the requirements of the Act.

For full details and to register interest, click here

Further opportunities, including training on generative AI, will be available soon.

To keep up-to-date on these and other upcoming events or to discuss tailored training, development and support for businesses in the construction and built environment sector, please contact samantha.tennant@northumbria.ac.uk

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Northumbria University .