engleski

Construction industry progress through R&D and innovation

The world construction industry (WCI) is one of the biggest industries in the whole world. The contribution of this industry towards the global GDP revolves around one-tenth of the total amount. WCI is also a potential employment generator and, in this respect, it provides work to almost seven percent of the total workforce on the global level. This means that WCI is the basis of the world economy, which is achieved through construction of real estate properties (both residential and commercial), or through realization of infrastructure projects such as bridges, tunnels, roads, railways, airports, etc. The industry sector of construction is also very important at the European Union level. In fact, the construction sector in the European Union is the biggest provider of employment, and it greatly contributes to the gross capital of the European Union. The work realized in this sector covers the entire cycle of economic activities: from the excavation and extraction of raw materials to the process of recycling civil engineering works and buildings. The construction industry has been criticized for its conservatism and lack of innovation. But is this characterization fair? Much of the innovation in the sector occurs at the project level and tends to be process and organization based. According to official statistics, construction companies invest comparatively little in the formal R&D, but are rather inclined to adopt new technologies and develop new ideas to improve their operations. R&D should be based on strategic thinking. Large construction companies have their own R&D departments with full time staff. The biggest gap between companies and researchers is communication, but the most urgent areas for the development of construction industry are the productivity, customer orientation, and sustainability.In the European Union, considerable efforts are being invested in the improvement of construction industry through EU funds allocated to R&D. In this paper, the on-going EU funds, and also some projects, are presented as the examples where R&D ideas have been translated from research into products. Despite examples, it should be noted that such innovations are difficult to evaluate with standard indicators, which tend to be more suitable for technology intensive sectors and, consequently, more research is required to develop appropriate metrics for different types of innovative activities that are carried out throughout the lifecycle of construction projects.

Research and development work; European Research Area; Civil Engineering

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