CIB is pleased to announce the call for the third CIB Keith Hampson ECR-Industry Award 2025.
Fenerously endowed by Keith Hampson, CIB President from 2019 to 2022, the award encourages industry collaboration by Early Career Researchers (ECRs).
Background and aim
The overarching purpose of the award, known as the CIB Keith Hampson ECR-Industry Award is to promote new and innovative connections between ECRs and the built environment industry. Professor Keith Hampson built a prominent career connecting research with the built environment industry through engaged partnerships, including as CEO of the Sustainable Built Environment national research centre (SBEnrc) in Australia.
This annual award is intended to provide ECRs with an opportunity to develop and foster industry connections as they begin their research careers. The aim is to encourage ECRs to put forward innovative ideas for the development of improved engagement with industry in their research. Examples might include travel to an industry event, participation in an industry study tour, a pilot research project with industry, etc. The proposal should demonstrate a new or strengthened collaboration between the ECR and the industry partner and describe how the collaboration will benefit both the ECR and industry partner.
Eligibility
The competition is open to ECRs, including doctoral research students, attached to CIB through Full or Associate Members, or who are Individual Members. CIB defines ECRs as those researchers with less than 5 years’ research experience or within 5 years of obtaining a PhD or other terminal degree.
Award
The Award for the winning proposal will be a sum of up to €1,000. All funds must be utilised in the calendar year following the application and award announcement.
Previous winners
There have been 3 previous winners of the CIB Keith Hampson ECR-Industry Award.
The inaugural recipient in 2022 was Nazanin Kordestani, who was President of the CIB Student Chapter at Massey University, to further her research in ‘Work-Life Balance (WLB) of Women Professionals in the New Zealand Construction Industry and Potential Opportunities for Improvement‘.
Huey Wen Lim, a McKenzie Postdoctoral Research Fellow within the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning at the University of Melbourne received the 2023 award to further explore how work practices in prefabrication construction influence the wellbeing of the construction workforce.
The 2024 award was presented to Arghavan Akbarieh of Eindhoven University of Technology. Arghavan who is using her award to further research on creating an AI-driven serious game that supports construction professionals in ISO 19650 standards and openBIM practices.
Call for Proposals
The Call for Proposals is issued in June 2025, and submissions should be a maximum of 2 pages and:
- describe in detail the activity that the individual will engage in and with which industry / industry partner(s);
- describe how the proposal demonstrates a new or strengthened collaborative link between the individual and industry;
- how the individual’s career will benefit from this activity;
- how the industry partner/s will benefit from this activity;
- the potential for the collaboration to continue;
- include a timeline for activity completion in the year; and,
- an outline budget of how the individual will utilise the €1,000 grant. Leveraging of any additional funding from industry, governmental agency, research institute, etc will be highly regarded.
The proposal must include a statement/letter from the relevant industry partner(s) certifying that the individual and the industry partner(s) agree on the activity (this letter should be treated as an appendix/addendum and does not count towards the 2-page maximum).
Closing date for proposals
Proposals for this award must be sent as a pdf file by email to CIB Programme Director, Dr. Sina Moradi, at sina.moradi@cibworld.org by October 10, 2025.
Proposal assessment
The Judging Panel, appointed by the CIB Future Leaders Committee, will assess proposals on the extent to which they are likely to contribute to the following:
- promotion of CIB and its objectives;
- stimulation and facilitation of information exchange between the researcher and industry;
- demonstrates a new or strengthened collaboration between the researcher and industry;
- the practical feasibility of the activity;
- potential for the researcher’s career to be enhanced;
- impact on industry;
- the likelihood that the collaboration between the researcher and the industry partner(s) would continue;
- likelihood that the activity described in the proposal will be completed within calendar year 2025; and,
- writing style, readability, and flow; impact; and originality and creativity.
Announcement of the winner
The winner of the CIB Keith Hampson ECR-Industry Award 2025 will be notified in January 2026, and will be required to assist CIB in promoting their award through the various channels.
Reporting
The winner of the Award is required to report on the activity immediately after its completion, and is expected to contribute to CIB publicity of the outcome. Any dissemination of results obtained through the funded activity should acknowledge the CIB Keith Hampson ECR-Industry Award.
Further information
Please contact sina.moradi@cibworld.org if you have any further questions on this call.
