Research
Research and Enterprise in the School of Architecture, Design & Construction
Introduction
Research and enterprise in the school are organised in unison; research and scholarly activity are essential to the running of the school’s learning and teaching and is complemented by enterprise activities which relate to advice, consultancy, training and recruitment available to businesses and other organisations. Teaching, learning, research and enterprise all nourish one another to provide the context for the school activities, the development of students and staff and liaison with external communities and organisations from the local to the international. Please see the separate page for enterprise activities.
In the main, the school’s like the university's research effort, is focused on making contributions to the solving of real-world problems or the advancement of issues that have a direct bearing on business, industry, regional, national and international communities and, ultimately, peoples' lives. The research strategies are based around sustainable development and buildings and design.
These groups have received awards from research grants, business investment, consultancy and other related sources. The quality of the research carried out by the university has been acknowledged in the Research Assessment Exercise which rated the School's research as 3b in the 2001 exercise with a substantial proportion of the work ‘flagged’ (being at least a grade 4). In the 2008 exercise nearly half the research outputs were deemed to be world leading or internationally excellent (see below).
Research structure
The School of Architecture, Design & Construction's research structure is based on four research groups in:
- Sustainable Built Environments
- Sustainable Landscapes
- AVATAR (Advanced Virtual & Technological Architectural Research)
- Architectural History and Theory
Research Strategy
The priorities for research objectives in the school are:
- To support staff on existing PhD courses to encourage completion.
- To encourage existing research excellence to consolidate our standing for the next Research Assessment Exercise.
- To encourage dissemination by the development of the research website and poster displays of the research projects.
- To provide additional research support to improve the productivity of research active staff.
- To encourage attendance and conferences and meetings in order to raise the school's research profile.
The strategy to achieve the above objectives is base on a programme to encourage staff to:
- Develop research projects in conjunction with the existing research infrastructure and obtain funding.
- Encourage publications and writing up of research/consultancy activities.
- Enrol on research programmes including PhD programmes.
In conjunction with other strategies of the school, the two key areas of future development are:
- Our multi-disciplinary advantage. We are developing research across traditional boundaries that will be leading edge and gain esteem.
- Collaboration with other universities, employers and professionals. We have had success in organising research projects in conjunction with existing consultancy, teaching, CPD and staff/student exchange projects.
Thus the School's research strategy is to capitalise on the interests and expertise of research-active academic staff and to encourage the productive channelling to current and future research aspirations into areas of maximum benefit for the school research areas.
Research Assessment Exercise 2008
The 2008 Research Assessment Exercise for the School of Architecture, Design & Construction confirmed the improved research status of the school. The School’s research profile placed it second in terms of the various RAE submissions within the university and nationally placed it well above many of its traditional competing universities in our disciplines.
The school submitted in Unit of Assessment 30 (Architecture and the Built Environment) and 10 staff were submitted. The research profile represents the percentage of research activity at each quality level and was as follows:
- Category 4* - world leading research - 10%
- Category 3* - internationally excellent - 30%
- Category 2* - recognised internationally - 40%
- Category 1* - recognised nationally - 10%
In detailed feedback the RAE judged nearly half the research outputs to be world leading or internationally excellent. The combination of the number of staff submitted combined with the research profile will lead to a great improvement in research funding for the school.
The School of Architecture, Design & Construction is led by Professor Neil Spiller. The RAE exercise was managed by the Director of Research and Enterprise, Professor David Isaac and included Professors Mehrdad Shokoohy, Keith Jones and Alan Powers.
The Greenwich Academic Literature Archive (GALA) provides free access to peer-reviewed articles, conference papers and book chapters produced by researchers at the University.