news from the BRE Group
published: 2/8/2010
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BRE Trust increases spending on research projects
BRE Trust Annual General meeting 2010
"The financial performance of the BRE Group remains strong and has shown significant improvement despite the general market conditions. The BRE Trust has increased funding on research projects and proceeded with plans to help meet current and future challenges."
Sir Neville Simms, Chairman of the BRE Trust.
Strong financial performance
At the BRE Trust AGM today, Sir Neville Simms announced that the net profit of the BRE Group - comprising BRE, BRE Global and FBE Management - was £3.05 million this year, based on a turnover of £46.60 million. The Trust's spending on research projects rose to £2.702 million, a significant increase on last year.
Over £1.8 million of this was used to support projects being carried out through the Trust's managed research programme and the NHBC Foundation (a partnership between the Trust and NHBC). The remaining funding was used to support BRE University Centres of Excellence including the four Chairs of the Centres and 26 PhD /engineering doctorate students, nine of whom were new appointments. PhD funding has also been provided to the universities of Birmingham and Loughborough.
Eight new projects were added to the research programme bringing the total number of active research projects funded by the BRE Trust to 43.
Research programme
Sir Neville Simms reported on the progress of the Trust's three-year research programme, announced last year, which focussed on investigating new, low environmental impact construction processes, materials and products. This Year the Trust contributed £283,000 of the £1.5 million to the programme. This is run in parallel with the Trust's existing projects.
Co-ordinated and funded publications programme
This year the BRE Trust published its 2009 Review, highlighting recently completed research projects from BRE, BRE Global and the University Centres of Excellence. Fifty two publications were given approval, 10 have been published and the remainder are in advanced stages of production.
Another 20 publications were produced as outputs from the Research Programme. Ten of these were from the NHBC Foundation relating to sustainable construction for housebuilders. The Trust is also supporting the development of a new web based magazine, building4change which aims to be the hub of knowledge for issues regarding sustainability in the built environment.
Sir Neville commented, "This funding has helped to produce and update publications urgently needed by the industry in line with the Trust's objectives to communicate and educate in matters relating to the built environment." He added, "Publications on Bats and Refurbishment, Smart home systems and the Code for Sustainable Homes, Developments in fire detection and fire alarm systems, and many other built environment issues, demonstrate the enormous breadth of research that the Trust supports. I would particularly like to commend ‘The real cost of poor housing' an output from a BRE Trust Research project. This critically examines the knock on cost to the health service of unsafe and unhealthy homes and demonstrates that in many cases a small amount of money spent on properly maintaining housing would significantly reduce costs to the health service. This publication is receiving wide spread interest and is beginning to influence regional policy, for example in the North West of England."
The new publications programme for 2010/11 was agreed in February 2010 by the newly formed BRE Trust Publications Committee chaired by Hugh Ferguson.
Supporting the next generation of scientists
This year a new centre was founded at Cardiff University - School of Engineering (Building systems and informatics) and in July 2010 the first BRE Trust PhD student convention was held, hosted by the BRE Chair at Bath University. Students were able to meet their colleagues at other universities and hear about their research.
For the fifth consecutive year the Trust has provided Parmiter's School in Watford with support and financial assistance to enable a group of sixth form pupils to participate in the Engineering Education Scheme (England), which is part of the Royal Academy of Engineering's ‘Best' programme.
The scheme gives pupils the opportunity to work on real research projects, guided by mentors from local companies - in this case BRE Global - so they can experience science, engineering and technology first hand. This year's project on ‘Research into the energy saving properties of phase change materials' again gained the Parmiter's students a gold award in the British Association for the Advancement of Science CREST scheme.
For more information contact Chris Watson, BRE Trust Secretary and Research Manager:
T 01923 664743, E watsonc@bretrust.org.uk
Notes for editors
Details of all the latest publications can be found at www.brebookshop.com - or for NHBC www.NHBCFoundation.org
The BRE Trust Review 2009 can be downloaded at www.bretrust.org.uk/review
Photograph
A photograph of Sir Neville Simms is available from the BRE Trust Secretary and Research Manager.
The BRE Trust
The BRE Trust is a charitable company whose objectives are, through research and education, to advance knowledge, innovation and communication in all matters concerning the built environment for public benefit. www.bretrust.org.uk
The Trust owns the BRE Group Ltd, which in turn owns BRE (www.bre.co.uk), BRE Global Ltd (www.breglobal.co.uk) and FBE Management Ltd. In operational terms, the BRE Trust and the BRE Group are two sides of a single coin, with one side being the commercial operations, i.e. the BRE Group, and the other the charitable operations - the BRE Trust. Profits made by BRE Group companies are passed to the Trust and used by it to promote its charitable objectives.
The NHBC Foundation
The NHBC Foundation is a collaboration between the BRE Trust and NHBC. It facilitates research and development, and technology and knowledge sharing relevant to the homebuilding industry. www.NHBCFoundation.org
The BRE University Centres of Excellence
The BRE Trust provides financial support to four Chairs at the BRE Centres of Excellence at Edinburgh University (Fire Safety Engineering), Strathclyde University (Energy Utilisation Research), Bath University (Innovatory Construction Materials) and Cardiff University -Welsh School of Architecture (Sustainable Building Design). Each centre has an allocation of two new PhD studentships per year each PhD lasting three years.
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