Costain, international law firm Pinsent Masons and the University of Cambridge have secured funding from Innovate UK to see how innovation can be harnessed more effectively and for longer.
The research will take 12 months and will examine how innovation - often overlooked or ignored as projects develop - can be promoted throughout the supply chain.
Mark Wray, Lead Technologist for the Built Environment at Innovate UK, said:
“Within current contractual frameworks there is a degree of fear and uncertainty inside the supply chain with regard to innovation. Innovation by its very nature carries a degree of risk. Where collaborative innovations are undertaken and the desired result is not as expected, these relationships can become litigious. What this project aims to do is essentially eradicate this reduction in the ability to innovate, ensuring that the opportunity is maintained throughout the whole life of the project.”
Innovate UK is the UK’s innovation agency and sponsored by the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills.
The project is titled ‘Maximising Innovation Beyond Procurement and Contract Execution’, which reflects the fact that once a contract has been procured, the scope to accommodate innovation within the contract is governed by the contract itself and the nature of the contractual relationship.
“This project provides an opportunity to test theories of contract design in a commercial setting and will generate new knowledge on the conditions for effective collaboration in complex infrastructure projects,” said Simon Deakin, Professor of Law and Director of the Centre for Business Research, at the University of Cambridge.
The research will be split into five Work Plans. Firstly, it will devise a ‘Conceptual Model’ which will seek to rectify the problems which currently exist within the current supply chain around contractual and commercial processes; secondly, ‘Behaviours’ will measure the strength of relationships within the supply chain; thirdly, there will be a case study showing how clients have encouraged innovation across their programmes.
From there, the team will produce ‘Commercial and Legal Guidelines’ - or a toolkit - which includes clauses which can be adopted as recommendations for how to get more from the supply chain. This will allow for innovation to be ingrained throughout the whole supply chain relationship. And finally, a White Paper will be produced which will take the learning and discussion points from the organisations involved to stimulate debate within the industry, including among large government customers.
Some of the key activities also include a workshop taking place tomorrow to look at the contractual barriers to innovation and, early in 2016, there will be a client-focused contractual innovation briefing to delve deeper into the issue with different stakeholders.
“Under many current industry models, the potential for innovation diminishes as a project develops. The aim of this research project is to identify the barriers to innovation and see what steps can be taken to reduce the uncertainty and risk related to innovation. We will then be able to ensure that innovation is maintained throughout the whole life of a project,” said Adam Golden, Legal Executive at Costain, who helped to secure funding for the project.
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