Blue sky or applied research?

It's been 3-4 months since my last blog entry and now finally I have managed to find some time to reflect on my experience in the world of applied research with the completion of my Innovation Voucher project. Doing research in the field is where it really happens particularly within the Construction Management. It requires an understanding of not only theory but practice, so it has been an exciting, hectic and some times illuminating experience and has re-iterated the importance of linking theory and practice!

We do research. Publish papers. So what? What are we doing with it later on? How can we make an impact on practice? Dear researchers, how often do we ask ourselves what this piece of research brings to me apart from a nice article in a nice academic journal? What does it give to other people, community, country, the rest of the world? How am I making a difference? I think we should ask this question every time we are involved in research.

For me the Innovation Voucher project was a great opportunity to link my research to the existing practice, and reflect on the impact of my PhD project. This collaborative process is a key to sustaining the researcher development agenda in the times of funding cuts, and that is why I found it so useful to engage in this practice-focused funding vehicle.

I believe collaboration projects between HEI institutions and industry are a valuable asset which is underused at the moment. This collaborative process is all about looking for ways of better academia/industry engagement, which after all is one of the reasons for my PhD journey.

Check out the link: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/scottish-sme-working-towards-digitising-its-workflow-abdel-wahab