‘Not invented here!’ R&D in Construction

Annabelle is Founder of SCIN, the UK’s largest Independent Materials Sourcing and Advisory Agency, Director in Filer+Cox, a Design Practice and CEO of Tensei an agrifibre based materials R&D company.

Her Plan A as an Architect was to become a visionary that created iconic buildings but Plan B arrived and in 2003 she established SCIN and has in the ensuing years spent 10’s of 1000’s of hours researching, curating and with her team, advising on materials.

As part of Plan B, Annabelle has lectured widely, written profusely for various journals and advised multinationals ranging from global coating companies to Automotive businesses on new material technologies.

Plan C has evolved from this position of knowledge and Annabelle is now developing new materials from agrifibre, specifically a technical paper . As to the future…. well viniculture and falconry possibly has a part to play.

Paddy is a building environmental engineer and a former senior partner of Hoare Lea. He is a Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) Vice President and a Visiting Fellow at LSBU.

He was a member the 2014 REF (Research Excellence Framework) Built Environment panel & of the RIBA visiting board 2007 - 2012. He is an advocate of integrated teamwork and of forging closer ties between research and practice.

Elspeth is CEO & Founder of Indigo&, a start ups helping SMEs to find talented professionals, and Chair of the Royal Academy of Engineering Innovators’ Network. Formerly she was European Innovation Director for the engineering, project management and design consultancy Atkins.

A scientist by training, Elspeth founded the transport consultancy Intelligent Space Partnership in 2000, which she sold to Atkins in 2007. During her time with Atkins, Elspeth played a key role in the redesign of London's Oxford Circus and led Atkins Future Proofing Cities work, focused on the challenges of global urbanisation.

In 2014 Elspeth was appointed as the Innovation Director for the UK and Europe region. Elspeth was elected as one of the eleven UK Young Global Leaders for 2010 by the World Economic Forum, and in 2013 was awarded the Royal Academy of Engineering Silver Medal, in recognition of achieving significant commercial success and advancing the cause of engineering in the UK.

Mike is Knowledge Transfer Manager for Construction at the Knowledge Transfer Network. A professional Mechanical Engineer with 30 years of experience in the construction products industry, he has worked in many areas of the business including design engineering, product development, sales and marketing. and education and training.

Some of his key product involvements included polymer insulators used on Southern regions third rail system, solar thermal and waste heat storage systems, and energy from tunnels. He believes that developing innovation in the construction industry is key to the future growth and strength of UK construction.

Since joining the Knowledge Transfer Network, part of the Innovate UK family, Mike has been responsible for a range of projects in the construction industry, including encouraging innovation in digital construction, and innovation in condition monitoring. He has also led the recent launch, by the KTN, of i3P (Infrastructure, Industry Innovation Portal) the successor the Crossrail’s Innovate 18 program, wdesigned to facilitate shared innovation across the industry.