Faculty of Art, Design and the Built Environment

Collaboration

The Built Environment Research Institute (BERI) at the University of Ulster has a strong track record of collaboration with other organisations and institutions on a world-wide basis and works in partnerships at local, regional, national and international levels. Such structures have allowed BERI to bring together leadership and world class resources at Ulster. Working in partnership is a core characteristic of the four respective research centres bringing the benefits of innovation in response to stakeholder needs and fostering a multi-disciplinary approach. Partnership examples include RPP's involvement with the International Centre for Local and Regional Development (ICLRD) a cross-disciplinary and cross-border organization focussing on spatial planning, transportation, economic development, housing and property markets with funding streams drawn from international agencies, national governments and donors. RPP's leading role with TNO in FP7 projects notably BESECURE and COBACORE has created new networks involving major partner organisations throughout Europe.

CST is playing a leading role in the energy needs of the island of Ireland through funding from the Irish Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources in the form of the £2.5 million Charles Parsons Energy Award to develop a series of demand-side energy reduction technologies for the built environment. Several of the major awards made to CST have involved partnership arrangements such as the Faraday and Supergen consortia and FP7 projects. 

Similarly, FireSERT staff have been involved in several European funded networks. FireSERT is involved in a partnership that is developing a new concept methodology for the fire-resistant design of composite cellular steel floor beams with leading UK Universities and industries. 

HySAFER is a key player in the International Association for Hydrogen Safety (IA HySafe, 2009-present, http://www.hysafe.org/IAHySafe) which assumed international leadership in the field of hydrogen safety from the European Network of Excellence (NoE HySafe, 2004-2009, EC contribution €12M, http://www.hysafe.org/) in which Ulster was one of 25 partners.

These networks and industrial collaborations have enriched the research environment of the unit in many ways: through the formulation of problems, sharing of ideas and joint strategies, through access to unique experimental data, through complementarities and synergies of research centres around the globe and through a sustained stream of external funding. Participation in networks and clusters ensures that staff members have first-hand access to up-to-the-date information and are involved in current research issues on a national and international stage.