Faculty of Art, Design and the Built Environment

History

The School of the Built Environment at the University of Ulster was established in 1994 with the merger of three academic departments namely Surveying, Building, Civil Engineering and Transport, initially within the Faculty of Engineering and more laterally in the Faculty of Art, Design and Built Environment. Since the formation of the School, there has been significant emphasis placed on the role of research in promoting courses across the built environment disciplines from a research-informed perspective. Following successful research ratings in the 1996 and 2001 Research Assessment Exercises, the Built Environment Research Institute (BERI) was founded in 2003 as one of 16 Research Institutes within the University of Ulster. Initially three research centres, the Centre for Sustainable Technologies, the Centre for Research on Property and Planning, and Fire Safety Engineering Research and Technology (FireSERT), constituted BERI. However the emerging work in hydrogen safety, formerly within FireSERT was recognised by the University and established as a separate research centre in late 2008. This has allowed the Hydrogen Safety Engineering Research (HySAFER) centre to play a leading role in the European research agenda through leadership in hydrogen safety research notably through a contribution to regulations, codes, and standards, and the development of a framework for carrying out hydrogen safety engineering.