Welcome to the New Construction Research and Innovation Strategy Panel (nCRISP) website, with a host of new pages and resources. The website has been developed and is supported by The Steel Construction Institute (SCI).

Following the launch of Professor David Pearce's report, 'The Social and Economic Value of Construction', in November 2004, a colloquium of the report has been organised for 24th May. Five 'think pieces' have been commissioned for the event and will be presented by the authors. The colloquium will be opened by Nigel Griffiths, the Minister for Construction, facilitated by John Worthington of DEGW and attended by an invited audience.

The UK National Platform for the Built Environment launched the UK Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) on 6 June 2006.

In October 2003, nCRISP published their three-year Business Plan (2004 - 2006). This sets out ten priority issues under three themes and six sectors, identified as nCRISP priorities over the three year period. The inclusion of sectors (infrastructure, heritage, general building, etc) is to address the problem of 'construction' being treated as a single homogeneous industry or sector.

Is it possible, and is it desirable, to develop an R & I strategy for the UK construction industry as a whole? Are our current research models sufficiently robust to help us construct the built environment of the future?

The UK National Platform's High Level Group recently announced its three strategic research and development areas for the industry: Reduced Resource Consumption; A Client-driven, Knowledge-based Construction Sector; and ICT and automation.

There is no comprehensive existing model for construction as an economic and business activity. If there was, it might be possible to predict the likely outcomes of a particular action and then to test the outcomes against our predictions.