Scottish construction picks up £708,000 funding package

The Scottish Construction Centre, the body set up last year by Scottish Enterprise to improve the performance of the country’s construction industry, has received £708,000 of European funding.

The centre is run by a partnership led by:

• University of Dundee
• Construction Industry Research and Information Association

Also on board are:

• BRE (Building and Research Establishment)
• Building Software
• Glasgow Caledonian University

The centre is tasked with catering for the “real” needs of the sector in Scotland and helping the industry grow.

The latest cash boost from the European Regional Development Fund will be spent on looking at issues such as increasing productivity, improving sustainability, streamlining the planning and procurement regimes and how to tackle the current economic downturn.

The construction industry accounts for around 10% of GDP in Scotland, employing 10 percent of the workforce.

Professor Malcolm Horner, who heads up the Scottish Construction Centre at the University of Dundee said: “The under-performance of the construction industry in the UK has been a source of concern for many years.

“Numerous reports have highlighted potential for improvement. While there has been limited success in England, none of these have created any measurable impact on the Scottish industry.

“Historically, the construction industry has been notoriously conservative in its approach, and we’re aiming to convert or translate relevant research on innovation and best practice into a simple language and help our companies progress.”

The organisation is already supporting four of a planned nine Construction Improvement Clubs (in Aberdeen, Borders, Fife and Glasgow), comprising 20-100 SME member companies.