The CIB Board met online for its first Board meeting of 2024 from March 11th-13th in three sessions of two hours each.
The Board was encouraged by progress with planning for the World Building Congress 2025, for which Purdue University have received well over 600 abstracts, suggestions for key note speakers were invited, and a proposal for a Doctoral School was approved, further details of which will be circulated in due course. Other business included improvements to the Visiting Global Scholar Programme for the next year, a new publication to commemorate CIB’s 70th anniversary, and Board members agreed to identify one Foundation or other organisation each where they will lead in contacting them for a discussion about funding or sponsorship opportunities.
The Board also agreed a proposal to the General Assembly (GA) in June regarding membership subscriptions for 2025 and the discount policy for lower income countries. This proposal has been communicated as part of the calling notice to all lead contacts of CIB members. Another resolution agreed to be proposed at the GA is to amend the CIB Byelaws and other guidance to require new Commission Coordinators to be Full or Associate members, not Individual members, whilst allowing that existing Coordinators who are Individual members may continue in the role provided that a) their institution upgrades to Associate or Full member status, or b) they remain paid-up Individual members and have at least one Associate or Full member as a Co-Coordinator.
Presentations
The Board was also delighted to hear from two of CIB’s Award/funding winners in 2023: Andrea Giovanni, Politecnico di Milano Student Chapter, winner of the Sebestyen Award for “Integrating Artificial Intelligence in the Building Sector” and Jan Hugo of University of Pretoria, winner of Vistas funding for “Smart flexible façades”. Both presentations and research programmes were commended as excellent examples of what CIB seeks to encourage – international collaborations delivering valuable research outcomes and impact for industry. The presentations were advertised to all CIB members to attend live, they were also recorded and will be posted on CIB’s youtube channel.
