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What the Construction Scotland Innovation Centre was

The Construction Scotland Innovation Centre was set up in October 2014 to help Scotland's construction industry innovate. It defined innovation as "change that unlocks new value" and worked by linking businesses, university experts, the public sector and economic development networks.

How it worked

• Collaborative projects: it helped companies and public clients build projects with universities to tackle industry problems, create jobs and support growth.
• New products and business models: it supported firms from idea to market, as with the K-Briq recycled brick.
• Equipment: its Innovation Factory gave industry access to manufacturing, robotics and visualisation equipment.
• Skills: it ran training programmes on BIM, offsite construction and low-carbon building (overview).
• Events: conferences, briefings and tours brought the sector together (events archive).

The centre was hosted by Edinburgh Napier University. In 2022 it was renamed Built Environment – Smarter Transformation (BE-ST); its current activities are on be-st.build.