The first annual conference of the Build Digital Project took place on 26 October. The conference showcased the progress of the project in its first of five years term.

The Build Digital Project is working to transform the Irish construction and built environment sectors by enabling all stakeholders, particularly SMEs, clients, and suppliers, to develop, maintain, and continuously improve their capabilities as digitally enabled, standards-based, agile, collaborative, and sustainable participants in the delivery of Project Ireland 2040.

Keynote address

In his keynote address, Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Michael McGrath TD spoke about the progress being made by the Build Digital Project, commenting, “Since November last year, the Build Digital project has made significant progress, despite many challenges. I am happy to see the Build Digital team with 58 industry experts across the five important pillars of (1) Digital Leadership & Cultural Change, (2) Digital Standards, (3) Digital Education and Training, (4) Digital Procurement, and (5) Sustainability and Circular Economy. The Build Digital Project is driving innovation, which is supporting the delivery of Project Ireland 2040, strengthening the sector’s capability to meet national, EU, and international sustainability and circular economy targets. “

“The Build Digital Project presents a unique opportunity for positive change in construction; collaboration is embedded at all levels, the deliverables are reviewed annually to ensure alignment with the project objectives and critically, it has the certainty of grant funding for five years. Success will be measured by how it contributes to solving real problems and lead to increased digital adoption in the construction sector. I’d like to see increased involvement from industry and through that greater involvement maximise the benefits of this opportunity.”

Build Digital Project Director, Dr Clare Eriksson spoke about the strength of the collaborative partnership of bringing together government, industry and academia to deliver the Build Digital Project’s objective of delivering increased digital adoption across the entire Irish construction and built environment sector.

Construction Sector Group

PJ Rudden Chair of the Construction Sector Group (CSG) Innovation and Digital Adoption Sub-Group presented on Supporting Innovation and Capacity Building in the Construction Industry with 7 Priority Actions

“Priority Action 7 is the Build Digital Project to digitize the construction industry using Building Information Modelling (BIM). The DPER funding through Grant Agreement was set up earlier this year with the project awarded to TU Dublin and CitA supported by ATU, MTU, SETU and UCD. A country-wide baseline survey has just been completed across the industry to establish the current degree of digitization and to build on that in terms of Leadership, Standards, Training and Procurement pillars.”

Other speakers at Build Digital Project Conference

Other presenters included Robert Moore, Project Lead, Project Director; and pillar chairs Ted McKenna (MTU), Barry McAuley (TU Dublin), Ken Thomas (SETU), Alan Hore (TU Dublin) and James O’Donnell (UCD).
Industry speakers were Aonghus O’Keeffe (Roughan O’Donovan), Stephen Foley (Collen Construction), Aidan Bermingham (Irish Rail), Sarah Ingle (ACEI), Bernard Pierce (HSE Estates), Janet Lynch (ARUP) and Eileen Faherty (Modula).