Thanks to all who attended the Research Café to hear from two academics from the UTS School of Built Environment who are making impact in the world: Dr Suhair Zaid Alkilani and Associate Professor Alireza Fini.
Construction innovation and collaboration
Dr Suhair Zaid Alkilani speaking at Research Cafe, Photo credit: Amy Cotton
A Senior Lecturer in Construction Management, Dr Suhair Zaid Alkilani collaborates widely to foster a collaborative approach to social value creation.
Working to advance social and economic development in property and construction, she describes herself as one of a group of passionate people who care about the impact that the built environment has on people.
“Our research stream is specialised in infrastructure, construction, housing, property and real estate,” Suhair said.
“We are interested in addressing key challenges such as work, diversity and housing affordability and looking at how things like social procurement and green finance, circular economics and market analysis can help identify solutions.”
Enabling social procurement
Social procurement involves the deliberate use of purchasing to create ‘social value’. This is achieved through creating new cross-sector partnerships between government, private sector, social benefit and community-based organisations.
Through her team’s research, Suhair aims to be as impactful as possible.
“We bridge the theory with practical information that can inform policy makers, industry, government and practitioners; in fact, anyone who wants to advocate for increased social value,” Suhair said.
Today, the group’s research focus has expanded into policies looking at infrastructure skills legacy, Indigenous social procurement policy and efforts to support underrepresented groups in construction, including by helping migrants and refugees to affordable housing.
Suhair has also recently co-founded, in collaboration with Ass Prof Ani Raiden (Nottingham Trent University) and Distinguished Prof Martin Loosemore (School of Built Environment- UTS), the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction (CIB) Task Group 127- Social Value in Built Environment.
We bridge the theory with practical information that can inform policy makers, industry, government and practitioners; in fact, anyone who wants to advocate for increased social value.
This global initiative is bringing together researchers, practitioners, policy makers and industry leaders to advance social value research and practice in the international construction industry and built environment.
She encourages other researchers seeking to influence policy outcomes to work collaboratively and proactively by:
- seeking collaborations with policymakers, industry leaders and community organisations to ensure your research addresses pressing, real-world challenges
- presenting research findings in accessible formats such as policy briefs, fact sheets, practical toolkits or stakeholder workshops so that they can be easily understood and applied
- clearly demonstrating how your research leads to tangible benefits through case studies, data and measurable outcomes that strengthen your credibility with decision-makers.
Get involved
- Learn about the Social and Economic Development in Property and Construction Research Stream that specialises in research spanning the construction, infrastructure, real estate and housing sectors.
- Discover the Social Procurement Community of Practice for the Construction Industry, established to connect and support a diverse network of global thought-leaders in social procurement, addressing industry challenges, promoting social impact and fostering positive change.
- Learn about the CIB TG127 – Social Value in Built Environment initiative.
Advancing the manufacture of prefab timber buildings
Associate Professor Alireza Fini, Director of the Construction Management Program, has had an exciting research pathway to impact since joining UTS in 2017.
Alireza’s first research grant focussed on prefabricated mass timber to improve construction productivity, with a focus on the onsite installation of prefabricated systems.
“I first started to advocate for prefabrication back then before this approach was popular,” he said.
“After two initial research projects, I was successful in securing additional funding for new projects and started to engage with an industry partner, Oz Build construction.”
Alireza and his industry partners began exploring alternatives to CLT that didn’t rely on using glue and so shifted focus to work with nail laminated timber (NLT).
Through this CRC-P collaboration we brought in new industry partners to join us, and our project now includes building an advanced factory for DLT.
“This was when we started the laboratory testing of NLTs,” he said.
The team went on to secure more support to establish a research collaboration looking at dowel laminated timber (DLT) as a new option for efficient manufacturing.
“Our next stage was to apply for a CRC-project grant worth $7.5 million,” Alireza said.
“Through this CRC-P collaboration we brought in new industry partners to join us, and our project now includes building an advanced factory for DLT.”
Working with long-term partners
Having built strong relationships and delivered successful outcomes over many years, Alireza’s research team and industry partners are now recognised to be leaders in their field.
Working with companies like Oz Build Construction, ITI Australia, Oranik Consulting Engineers and Holmag AG, the team is widely known for pushing boundaries in prefabricated construction and for turning their research into practical and commercially valuable outcomes, including internationally.
“Once you focus and try to specialise in one area, gradually people will come to you,” Alireza said. “We now have different New South Wales Government departments reaching out to us to work with them on prefabrication, as this approach is now gaining a lot of attention as a viable solution for housing supply.”
Once you focus and try to specialise in one area, gradually people will come to you.
Having built a legacy over the past 8 years, Alireza and his colleagues are confident that they are just getting started and will be able to make even bigger impacts in future.
“Don’t wait for something to become trendy, if you believe in an area,” he advised.
“Build expertise and credibility and stick to it. Foster trusted relationships and keep the long game in mind. Once you build momentum year by year, the impact will follow.”
Get involved
Discover more about the Construction Industry Transformation research stream.