Our research
The School of the Built Environment has an exciting and vibrant research community engaged in advanced research in the Built Environment, much of which also involves national and international partners. We enjoy a top position in the UK government national research assessment which recognises the outstanding national and international profile of our academic staff. We are also number one for research power, a position held since 1992 (source: Research Fortnightly Magazine 2008).
SOBE makes a major contribution toward realization of the University strategic research theme of Built and Human Environment. This aims to transform the quality of life for society whilst ensuring the well-being of future generations through the provision of better and more sustainable futures. Key priority areas of this theme overall are sustainability and sustainable communities, which include issues such as energy production and consumption, healthy, accessible, inclusive and learning environments and wellbeing, disaster mitigation and reconstruction. Our aim is to act as the catalyst for positive change, both within the Built and Human Environment and at its many interfaces with the natural environment, engineering, health and social sciences. In doing so the theme will pay a leading role in shaping the Built and Human Environment towards green and sustainable futures incorporating high quality living and social responsibility.
As one of the largest UK schools, we have today some 70 active research staff, very many of whom are internationally recognised leaders in their field. We also have some 180 PhD students from around the world undertaking research programmes with us. Our research is principally focussed in research centres. If you wish to undertake a PhD, each centre has identified areas on their web pages, where they will particularly welcome PhD proposals from prospective students. The centres are described in brief below.
Prof Charles Egbu - Associate Head of Research
On this page:
Our research centres
Centre for Applied Archaeology
The Centre is the only University-based archaeology organisation and it has already established multi-year landscape research and community archaeology projects.
Centre for Information Technology in Construction (CITC)
The Centre for Information Technology in Construction is at the forefront of developing Construction IT and has made significant contributions in communication, visualisation, integration, and intelligent systems research.
Centre for Disaster Resilience (CDR)
The Centre for Disaster Resilience promotes research and scholarly activity that examines the role of building and construction to anticipate and respond to disasters that damage or destroy the built environment.
Centre for Facilities Management (CFM)
The Centre for Facilities Management is concerned with the engagement of people and the innovation of processes and settings in order to leverage the power of operational assets in transforming organisations.
Centre for Sustainable Urban and Regional Futures (SURF)
SURF is a mainly self-financing dedicated research centre, established in 1999 to undertake inter-disciplinary research on Sustainable Urban and Regional Futures. It works in a broad range of fields covering territorial knowledge, science and technology, and city and regional thinking.
Management in Construction (MIC)
The Management in Construction Research Centre (MIC) promotes research in varied areas of construction management at strategic, tactical and operational levels.
Research Centre for Education in the Built Environment (RCEBE)
The mission of Research Centre for Education in the Built Environment (RCEBE) is to promote high quality research in learning and teaching within the subject areas of the built environment including construction, surveying and real estate.
Salford Centre for Research and Innovation (SCRI)
SCRI's mission is to be recognised as one of the leading multidisciplinary centres in the built and human environment nationally and internationally, in order to deliver a construction industry that is valued by society.
SURFACE Inclusive Design Research Centre
SURFACE was established in 1999 as a centre of excellence providing research, teaching and consultancy in inclusive design.
Urban Quality Research Centre (UQRC)
The overall aim of the UQRC is to undertake research and technical development to understand the relative capability of the built environment to satisfy the quality-of-life expectations of individuals, communities and society.
The University of Salford Institutional Repository
The University has an open access Institutional Repository which holds many of the key publications produced by members of the research institute.
USIR can be searched by author, keyword, subject or year.
Facilities - Think Lab
The 'Think Lab' provides state of the art facilities in a futuristic environment enabling researchers to engage in research that harnesses the leading developments related to Information and Communication Technologies providing new solutions to current and future challenges faced by industry, commerce and the community.
Website: www.thinklab.salford.ac.uk
Click on the 'play' button to watch Think Lab's photo slide show