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Resilience research award has joint winners

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Competing candidates for this year’s Royal Charter International Research Award for Young Constructors were of such high quality that the judges elected to have joint winners

This award is presented by the Worshipful Company of Constructors (WWC) in collaboration with the BRE Trust, the largest charity dedicated to research and education in the built environment. It goes to outstanding individuals from the construction sector to undertake innovative and topical research in a country of their choice, with the aim of enhancing the resilience of the built environment.

The winning applicant receives £7,000 towards the cost of their study and the publication of their work through the BRE Centre for Resilience. This year the quality of the applications received was exceptionally high. After interviewing the candidates it was decided to have joint winners this year – they are:

Vera Bukachi of Arup and UCL, for a project addressing the provision of safe and sustainable water and sanitation in informal settlements in Kenya. It involves the use of a systems engineering approach to analyse the viability of replicable and scalable ICT based decision support tools.

Richard Look and Caroline Field of BuroHappold, for research on developing a diagnostic programme to support more resilient cities. They will advance a framework of measures and then test their validity through a comparative study of five major international developing conurbations.

‘The BRE Trust and WCC created this award to encourage exceptional individuals in the construction sector,’ says Guy Hammersley, of the BRE Trust. ‘We received an incredibly high quality of submissions this year and so it was decided to split this research award between two commendable candidates. The judging panel agreed that both pieces of research were worthy of support because of their quality, ingenuity and impact. Both studies aim to help transform our built environment into one that is more resilient.’

 The £7,000 award will be split between the two winners and put towards the cost of undertaking their research. A summary of the final report will also be published in Constructors Journal, the journal of the Worshipful Company of Constructors.

The winners received their award on 12 February, at the annual Worshipful Company of Constructors Livery & Awards Dinner at Drapers Hall in London.

For more information about the 2015 Royal Charter International Research Award for Constructors contact Linda McKeown at [email protected]

NOTES TO EDITOR

BRE Trust

BRE Trust is the largest UK charity dedicated to research and education in the built environment. It was set up to advance knowledge, innovation and communication for public benefit. The Trust uses all profits made by the BRE Group to fund new research and education programmes and to promote its charitable objectives.www.bre.co.uk/bretrust

BRE Centre for Resilience

The BRE Centre for provides a place for the built environment sector to research, learn, develop new standards and create the next generation of resilient materials, products, designs and innovations that will ensure the robustness and longevity of our homes, buildings, and communities. www.bre.co.uk/resilience

Worship Company of Constructors (WCC)

The WCC was founded by members in 1976 and was granted Livery by the Court of Aldermen in 1990. The company continued to prosper and in recent times was granted a Royal Charter of Incorporation by Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II in 2010. His Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester, at a Civic Dinner held at Drapers Hall in the City of London on 14th April 2011, subsequently presented our Royal Charter to us. The Constructors Company continues to support awards and scholarships in the Industry including substantial research and travel awards to young people. www.constructorscompany.org.uk/