Aug 7 2007
Highlights in 2006/7
Speaking at the BRE Trust AGM yesterday, Sir Neville Simms reported that the financial performance of the Trust’s subsidiary trading companies – BRE, BRE Certification and FBE Management – which provide the resources for its charitable activities, was one of the best so far with a combined net profit of £1.77 million on a £40 million turnover.
The Trust provided £893,000 (excluding management and administration costs) for research activities in 2006/7, and now supports 43 active research projects including 17 that have been newly commissioned and eight new PhD studentships that were awarded during the year.
Directors for the four research Centres of Excellence set up with Trust support at the universities of Bath, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Strathclyde (under the BRE-Universities Partnership) are now in place, and the Trust is providing funding for the university chairs held by each Director.
For the second year in succession the Trust supported pupils from Parmiter’s school (near BRE’s headquarters in Watford) taking part in the Royal Academy of Engineering sponsored Engineering Education Scheme. In a project to apply biomimetics in the construction industry, the pupils produced and tested new wall panels with impact and shock absorbing properties based on those of a coconut’s inner layers, and gained a gold award from the British Association for the Advancement of Science CREST scheme. The Trust plans to expand this support so that other schools can participate.
The NHBC Foundation, set up in association with the Trust to facilitate research and development, technology and knowledge sharing in all matters connected with housing, began its work by formulating and commissioning a number of projects. The first two publications resulting from the outputs of this programme were published during the year.
The first ten years
To mark the BRE Trust’s tenth anniversary, Sir Neville briefly reviewed its achievements so far. He recalled that when receiving ownership of BRE in 1997 the Trust had two overriding objectives – to ensure BRE’s successful transition from government agency to private sector company, and to establish itself as an organisation with the resources to support built environment research and education projects for the benefit of all.
“I am pleased to report that, though initially daunting, these objectives have been met,” said Sir Neville. “Our management teams and staff have worked hard to reorganise and refocus the BRE companies, making them responsive to market place demands and able to compete for public and private sector commissions without the cushion of guaranteed government income. And they have achieved this with no diminution of the independence and authority that BRE established over more than seven decades as the world’s first national building research organisation. The widespread respect for BRE’s output was recently demonstrated once again when the Government based its Code for Sustainable Homes on the BRE EcoHomes methodology.”
The commercial success of the BRE companies has allowed them to deliver gift-aid to the Trust over most of the decade, greatly enhancing its research and education activities. “Congratulations must go to all BRE staff,” said Sir Neville, “for helping the Trust become the largest UK research and education charity for the built environment. We can take great pride in the range and scope of our achievements.”
These include:
- a research programme that has produced important contributions in several areas, particularly sustainability
- over thirty PhD scholarship awards on wide ranging topics
- the contribution to built environment research being made by the four BRE-Universities Partnership
- research centres, which are quickly gaining recognition as centres of excellence and attracting research funding from other sources
- successful collaborations with other organisations – notably NHBC
- the dissemination of research results through a programme of free events
- a growing involvement with schools.
Outlook
The BRE Trust will continue to consolidate and develop the charitable initiatives started in the last decade – for example it will consider expanding of the BRE-Universities Partnership by establishing an additional centre.
Recognising that there are further ways that it could benefit the built environment, the Trust will investigate the possibility of expanding its constitution to allow activities beyond the areas of research and education.
Responding to the Government’s wish that research funding increasingly comes from the beneficiaries of the work, the Trust will continue to operate in a manner that recognises everybody as stakeholder in the built environment, with research and education programmes designed to generate information benefiting both industry and the wider public.
“I have every confidence that as we enter our second decade we have established very firm foundations,” said Sir Neville, “on which we can build an even wider range of charitable research and education programmes in the built environment.”