Professor Billy Hare earns international award for research leadership

Professor Billy Hare’s contribution to safety, health and wellbeing research in construction has been acknowledged at an international conference in Melbourne, Australia.

The inaugural ‘CIB Wim Bakens Best Coordinator Award’ was presented by the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction (CIB for short) at their triannual World Building Congress, hosted at RMIT University in Melbourne in June this year.

The CIB is a global network for international exchange and cooperation in building and construction research and innovation, established in 1953 with United Nations’ assistance, and holds special UN consultative status. The organisation has over 40 international research groups, known as ‘Working Commissions’, led by academics with expertise in each of the research groups. The award for best coordinator is named after the recently retired Director General of CIB, Dr Wim Bakens.

Professor Hare won the award along with joint coordinator for the Working Group on ‘Safety, Health and Wellbeing in Construction’, Dr Fred Sherratt, and the coordinator for the ‘People in Construction’ Working Group, Professor Fidelis Emuze. The award covers the previous three years, and was in acknowledgement of continued work by the two Working Groups to deliver two joint online conferences (both hosted by GCU) during the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, engagement with CIB on research bids led by Professor Hare, and embedding the UN Sustainable Development Goals into the Working Groups’ activities.

Professor Hare said: “This award was a complete surprise, as it was only announced on the evening of the conference dinner, so no one knew who had won. It is a great honour to be acknowledged in this way, as our Working Group is one of the largest and most active in CIB.

“I think we have been ahead of the other Working Groups on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal’s, thanks to my experience of working with them at GCU for several years now. I’m also proud that I got to name our presentation sessions at this year’s World Building Congress ‘The Common Good’, as a nod to the University’s mission.”

The winners will hold the award until the next World Building Congress, scheduled to be in Purdue University, Indiana USA, 2025.