COBRA 2005 details released

25 August 2004

COBRA 2005 conference details released

COBRA 2005: the construction research conference of the RICS Foundation

Click here to download the COBRA 2005 conference brochure.

COBRA 2005 is being held on 4-8 July in Brisbane, Australia. The partners are:

• Queensland University of Technology
• RICS Oceania
• Australasian Universities Building Educators Association

> Click here to see full details of the conference.

> Click here to look at papers presented at previous COBRA conferences

COBRA in future years

Future venues for COBRA are:

2006: University College London, England
2007: Georgia Institute of Technology, United States of America
2008: Dublin Institute of Technology, Republic of Ireland
2009: University of Cape Town, South Africa

COBRA 2005

4-8 July 2005

In association with Queensland University of Technology, RICS Oceania and the Australasian Universities Building Educators Association.

In 2005, COBRA will be held in Brisbane, Australia, the first time that COBRA has been held outside the UK.

Venue

The conference will be held at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane, Queensland. QUT is Queensland's largest university, with a student population of 40,000. QUT is the largest provider of bachelor degree graduates into full-time employment in Australia each year and its graduate employment rate is well above the national average for Australian universities.

The conference campus is located in the centre of Brisbane, the capital city of Queensland. Brisbane is a unique blend of the old and new. At its heart, beautifully restored sandstone buildings provide a delightful backdrop to the city's glass towers. The inner city clusters around the loops of the Brisbane River, connected to leafy, open-skied suburban communities by riverside bikeways.

Brisbane residents enjoy a wide range of landscapes and lifestyles including ultra-modern shopping centres, pedestrian malls, alternative culture clusters, up-market commercial precincts and the South Bank Parklands. With over 1000 parks and gardens and the riverside Botanic Gardens at its centre, Brisbane is a green city.

The world-famous Gold Coast lies just to the south and the peaceful Sunshine Coast to the north, with easy access to a variety of natural attractions and scenery including beautiful Moreton Bay, Fraser Island, rainforests and rolling rural landscapes.

Importantly, Brisbane enjoys a subtropical climate with warm summers and mild, sunny winters. To reinforce the attraction of experiencing a Brisbane winter, here are the daytime temperatures for pertinent dates in July 2004: 24 degrees Celsius (75F) on July 4th, 25 degrees Celsius (77F) on July 5th and 23 degrees C (73F) on July 6th. Where else would you rather discover a COBRA?

Themes

The themes for COBRA 2005 are as follows. Papers can address these issues from a range of perspectives, embracing technical, organisational and policy aspects of these issues, as appropriate.

You should note that all papers will be considered on their merits and, while these are the stated themes of the conference, research on topics beyond these will be considered.

• Achieving Best Value Whilst the concept of best value has long been the aim of all project stakeholders, it has now become a platform for radical performance improvement in both the public and private sectors. Academic and practice-based papers are sought, that assess the effectiveness, efficiency and economy of new value-enhancing initiatives.
• Bridging the Skills Gap It has been stated that companies with higher skills make more money, complete more projects on time and have more satisfied clients. What are these skills? How might they be acquired? And, who should the industry be targeting to bridge the skills gap? These are the principal questions that papers should seek to address.
• Designing for All The challenges for designers in an increasingly inclusive society are considerable. This theme will seek to explore many of the questions raised.
• Legal and Commercial Relationships Critical evaluation of alternative procurement methods, contractual agreements and dispute resolution procedures are closely aligned with this theme. Case examples offer practitioners the opportunity to contextualise academic papers and celebrate the success of major projects and alliances.
• Social, Ethical and Corporate Responsibility More than ever before, built environment organisations are expected to take responsibility for the impacts of their operation on all stakeholders including the wider community. Both practical and theoretical contributions are expected which seek to understand the nature of these responsibilities and their ethical underpinnings.
• Sustainability and Climate Change Papers in this theme should seek to address appropriate responses to changing environmental requirements. A broad range of papers is expected, embracing issues in technology, government policy and regulation, management, knowledge development and institutional change. Innovative case examples from practice as well as academic papers will be welcomed.
• Globalisation As the industry and the clients of the industry become increasingly globalised in their activities, what impact may this have on the industry in the ways in which it offers its serves to its clients?

COBRA is a fully-refereed international research conference and all full papers submitted are assessed by two independent members of the review panel. All papers accepted for the conference are published.

Akintole Akintoye
Glasgow Caledonian University, Scotland

David Baldry
University of Salford, England

Malcolm Bell
Leeds Metropolitan University, England

Charles Egbu
Glasgow Caledonian University, Scotland

Chris Fortune
Heriot-Watt University, Scotland

Clif Hardcatle
Glasgow Caledonian University, Scotland

Michael Hoxley
Anglia Polytechnic University, England

John Kelly
Glasgow Caledonian University, Scotland

Peter Lawther
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia

Roger Liska
Clemson University, United States of America

Martin Loosemore
University of New South Wales, Australia

Joe Martin
Building Cost Information Service, England

Roy Morledge
Nottingham Trent University, England

David Proverbs
University of Wolverhampton, England

Stephen Pryke
University College London, England

Martin Sexton
University of Salford, England

Brian Sloan
Napier University, Scotland

Linda Thomas-Mobley
Georgia Institute of Technology, United States of America

Sara Wilkinson
Sheffield Hallam University, England

Key dates

Submission of abstract
14 January 2005

Acceptance of abstract
28 January 2005

Submission of full paper
1 April 2005

Acceptance of full paper
6 May 2005

Conference
4-8 July 2005

Conference secretariat

All submissions and other enquiries about COBRA 2005 should be sent to:

Tony Sidwell
Faculty of Built Environment and Engineering
Queensland University of Technology
2 George Street
Gardens Point
Brisbane
Australia

Email: tony.sidwell@qut.edu.au

Fax

+61 7 3864 1529

Responsibilities

Acceptance of a proposal to present a paper at COBRA 2005 carries with it certain responsibilities. These are to:

• Comply with deadlines for the submission of papers
• Attend the conference to present your paper

Your cooperation with these will prevent disappointment of other delegates and help to ensure the success of COBRA 2005.