Research

In December 2019, the Centre of Construction Law was granted funding by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy via the Construction Leadership Council (CLC) Demand Creation Working Group to investigate Contracting for Long-Term Strategic Relationships, building on the successful first stage research outputs delivered by the Centre in March 2018.

In November 2019, the Centre of Construction Law, working with University of Cambridge Engineering Department was awarded a grant by Centre for Digital Built Britain with funding provided by Innovate UK through the Government's Industrial Strategy.

This grant funds a two-year research programme that will examine and support construction procurement and contracting undertaken by high-performing collaborative clients and their teams.

The research project aims to examine, in detail, successful programmes that have delivered significant improvements in long-term performance by adopting collaborative procurement and management strategies. It will explore and analyse the connections between successful collaborative procurement and digital technology.

In November 2019, the Centre of Construction Law, in collaboration with the Supply Chain School, Construction Leadership Council, Buiding Better, South East Wales Collaborative Procurement Framework (SEWSCAP), along with a number of prominent house builders and contractors, has commenced the 3-year 'Performance Through Procurement' project funded by the Construction Industry Training Board.

The Centre will be contributing its expertise in construction law, new forms of contracting, business models and form of contract to develop new collaborative procurement training modules and materials for the construction industry.

In September 2017, the Centre of Construction Law was granted funding by CLC to undertake applied research to support greater acceptance and development of long-term strategic relationships facilitated through new model forms of agreement.

The model forms were designed to enable what the CLC describes as "Smart Construction", namely building design, construction and operation that through collaborative partnerships makes full use of digital technologies and industrialised manufacturing techniques to improve productivity, minimise whole life costs, improve sustainability and maximise user benefits.

The Centre completed this first stage of the research in March 2018.

In June 2016, the Centre of Construction Law launched the 'FAC-1 Framework Alliance Contract', authored by the Centre after a year of industry consultation and published by the Association of Consultant Architects.

FAC-1 fulfils the role of a multi-party framework and agreement and/or BIM protocol and acts as the 'glue' between the two party consultant appointments and building contracts in any jurisdiction. The Centre is embarking upon a research project to monitor early trials of the contract and extract key data on achieving success through a standard form framework. The Centre is also engaged in international consultation on the use of FAC-1 in other jurisdictions.

In July 2016, the Centre of Construction Law published a report on the back of an extensive research on the legal challenges posed by the adoption of BIM, mindful of the 2016 UK Government target for adoption of level-2 BIM and the route to level-3 BIM described in Digital Built Britain.

The central goal of the research report 'Enabling BIM Through Procurement & Contracts' was to analyse the extent to which the provisions of existing contract forms, protocols and procurement models meet the demands of a BIM-led industry.

The research project was supported by grant funding from the Society of Construction Law and the Association of Consultants Architects and the Centre had created a Working Group of carefully specialists to drive the project forward.

Enabling BIM through procurement and contracts