Aberdeen-based visual asset and data management specialist Return To Scene Limited, part of James Fisher and Sons plc, has joined forces with Robert Gordon University (RGU) for a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) with a focus on the construction and infrastructure sectors.
The two-year project, aims to develop and translate Return To Scene’s award-winning software, R2S, already a proven game-changing technology for the oil and gas industry, for the global construction and infrastructure sectors.
Claire Fleming, business support director at Return To Scene, and chair of the project’s local management committee explained how the project came about: “We’ve been proactively collaborating with the team at RGU’s Scott Sutherland School of Architecture and the Built Environment since 2016. Our research for academic conference papers identified parallels in industry challenges for these massive global markets, to those we have worked to solve within oil and gas. Combined with legislative developments in this space relative to Building Information Modelling (BIM), these powerful drivers meant that formalising our collaboration by way of the KTP, was a natural progression. R&D is a central tenet of our business and we have a fundamental belief that engagement with academia and the establishment of platforms for knowledge exchange not only create commercial benefit but contribute to the wider climate of innovation.”
Dr. Marianthi Leon, lecturer on project and construction management and the KTP’s academic supervisor said: “The shifting horizons in construction, infrastructure and energy industries are bringing forward a demand for more efficient and effective collaborations for ensuring projects’ success. Our collaboration with Return To Scene is building on these principles and our interdisciplinary expertise on project and collaboration management with high-end technological solutions as part of our internationally recognised research is highly contributing to the development of this project. We are looking forward to our exciting collaboration with Return To Scene for developing a state of the art technology and solution product for the Construction and Infrastructure industries while bridging the gap between academic research and industry.”
KTPs enable companies to work with higher education or research and technology organisations to obtain knowledge, technology or skills which they consider to be of strategic competitive importance. The UK-wide programme is overseen by Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency and supported by 16 other public-sector funding organisations.