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PerspectivesNewsBuilt Environment newsFor the latest on the School of the Built Environment, visit: www.salford.ac.uk/built-environmentSalford develops guide forimplementation of Building InformationModelling and Lean ConstructionExpertise from the Universityof Salford’s School of the BuiltEnvironment has been used incompiling a definitive and freeguide to Building InformationModelling (BIM) and LeanConstruction for the industry.Five of the world’s leadingacademics in the developmentof the latest efficient and digitalmethods of construction havewritten a guide for CIRIA, theConstruction Industry Researchand Information Association.Designed for practical useby clients, designers andconstruction companies,the guide covers the entirelifecycle of implementing andembedding these more efficientmethods into a company orproject – resulting in lowercosts and quotes during hardeconomic times.In particular, the University isworking hard within the UK tomake the construction industryaware of the benefits of BIMahead of the Government’simminent requirement for thewhole industry to trial it andLean on public sector projects.As a result, the guide notonly contains advice but alsosuccessful examples sourcedfrom the authors’ experiencearound the world in countrieswhere BIM and Lean is muchmore firmly entrenched inthe sector. These examplesinclude facilities managementat Maryland General Hospitaland planning techniques forthe Skanska Headquarters inFinland.Professor Lauri Koskela from theSchool of the Built Environmentled the writing of the guidealong with colleagues ProfessorArto Kiviniemi, Bhargav Daveand Dr Patricia Tzortzopoulos,alongside former Salfordacademic Robert Owen fromthe Queensland University ofTechnology. The guides can bedownloaded from the CIRIAwebsite – www.ciria.orgBIM demonstrated at THINKlab, photo by Martin RieseIn search of innovationInnovation is one of the key drivers ofeconomic development and a key sourceof new employment opportunities. Indeed,the Regional Innovation Scoreboard showsthat 35% of the variation in regional percapita income (at the EU level) can beexplained by differences in innovativeperformance.Encouraging innovation is, therefore, a keypolicy objective at the regional level. Thescope for expansion in innovative activity isconsiderable in areas with a strong highereducation-based knowledge infrastructure.Innopolis is co-financed by the EuropeanRegional Development Fund (ERDF) and madepossible by the INTERREG IVC programme,which aims to identify and disseminate bestpractice in innovation policy in universitycity-regions. More specifically, the projectfocuses on regional policy that can facilitateknowledge transfer between universities andenterprises. It involves universities and regionalauthorities in four diverse European universitycity-regions: Greater Manchester, Helsinki,Lodz and Thessaloniki.This three-year project is led by the Universityof Salford. So far the project has mapped20 existing policies and identified 125 bestpractices in its four partner regions. The projectwill also study the US, where policies have beenparticularly successful in supporting knowledgetransfer, and Prague as the most innovativepost-socialist city region. Video case studies often such practices can be viewed on the projectwebsite at:http://knowledgecities.eu/intro42 | May 2013