Construction Research Innovation and Best Practice
Rethinking Construction Innovation Research “The Fairclough Report”
The Review Process
Sir John Fairclough, former chief scientific adviser to the Cabinet Office,
ex-Director of IBM UK laboratories, and former Chairman of the Engineering Council
conducted a review of how to secure the right construction research skills and
facilities for the future. The review, undertaken jointly on behalf of the DTI
and the DTLR (now ODPM), has assessed what understanding, knowledge, skills
and facilities in construction research are likely to be needed to meet the
future requirements of government and industry, and how and where those competences
are best supported. The study was supported by an assessment of current UK construction
competences undertaken by the Science and Technology Policy Research Unit (SPRU),
University of Sussex
The Reviews Aims and Objectives
The objective of the review was to assess what research competences and facilities
it is necessary for government to help maintain in order
to provide scientific underpinning for the Building Regulations;
to be able to respond quickly to urgent concerns which may arise over the safety
and health implications of buildings and structures; and
to support government policy to ensure a more competitive and sustainable UK
construction industry.
Where "competence" is taken to mean understanding, knowledge and
skills in relation to construction technologies, techniques and processes and
their application to building components and systems.
The review examined the competences and facilities currently supported by government
at BRE, identified where else such competences and facilities exist, and identified
new requirements for competences and facilities, which do not exist within construction
at present.
The study also made recommendations about the level and distribution of continuing
support, which DTI’s Construction Sector Unit should provide to support key
competences nationally.
The Fairclough Report
Hard copies of the report are no longer available.
The Fairclough report has been made available in Adobe Acrobat format
for downloading.
The Adobe Acrobat Reader can be freely downloaded here.
Fairclough
Report(959kb)
Viewers with visual difficulties may find it useful to investigate services
provided to improve the accessibility of Acrobat documents
If you have any views of the study or wish to submit comments, these can be
e-mailed to the DTI at construction.research@dti.gov.uk
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Last
Updated: 20 April 2004
