BEFA - University of the Built Environment

Slide

Leadership

BEFA’s Chair is Mark Farmer, a noted sector leader in skills, productivity and modern methods, appointed to lead major reviews commissioned by government.

BEFA exists to facilitate excellence across the construction and wider built environment by convening expert voices and turning insight into action.”

Watch a short video introduction to BEFA from Mark.

BEFA’s strategic goals and aims

strategic goals

Safeguarding future capacity

Better professional standards and competency will drive better productivity.

Ensuring dynamic capability

Currency of professional and technical competency ensures relevant capability.

Lifting industry competency

Reflects the importance of professional knowledge, skills, experience and behaviour.

BEFA’s key focus

Principal focus areas

Cross-cutting themes

Principal focus areas

These principal focus areas sit at the centre of BEFA’s mission.

Education and future skills - Matching demand and supply of skills to meet needs of industry and society.
Professionalism - Ensure dynamic, skilled and adaptable workforce to drive competence & capability.

Cross-cutting themes

These shape and inform all the principal focus areas.

Inclusion - Joined-up leadership for a more inclusive built environment.
Sustainability - Preparing future leaders through integrating sustainability skills, knowledge and mindsets.

What makes BEFA different?

BEFA serves as a centre of excellence – a partnership focused on facilitating knowledge exchange, thought leadership, commissioning innovative projects and initiatives. It recognises and aggregates best practices for the built environment, aiming to offer a unique blend of authoritative publications, industry networking opportunities and resources for your organisation.

What sets BEFA apart is the active participation of stakeholders and contributions guiding its direction. This ensures that all activities are demand-led, pioneering new ways of working with the sector to define and produce collaborative actions. As a member of BEFA, you’re not just a participant, you’re a commissioning voice, shaping the Assembly.

The ambition is to move towards ‘transformational’ activities that are relationship-enabled through:

Facilitating strategic engagement with industry, government, professional bodies and education
Collaboration to address industry challenges aggregating the best thoughts/ideas on key sector issues
Informing decision makers to shape policy and practice by presenting evidence-based outputs
Generating evidence and new knowledge to advance views and thematic priorities

BEFA’S governance

Strategic Advisory Board

BEFA is guided by an employer-led Strategic Advisory Board (SAB), chaired by an independent industry leader, with overall responsibility for priorities, oversight and profile. The SAB meets three times a year and reports to the University of the Built Environment’s Executive. The SAB is currently chaired by Mark Farmer, a recognised international commentator on a variety of industry and policy-related issues.

Workstreams

Under the SAB sit five thematic workstreams aligned to BEFA’s principal focus areas and cross-cutting themes (i.e. education and future skills, professionalism, inclusion, sustainability and placemaking).

Each workstream is led by a subject-matter expert and supported by invited members drawn from industry, professional bodies, education, government and the wider ecosystem.

Workstreams meet regularly to agree priorities, share insights and shape outputs, with scope for task-and-finish groups where required. Cross-pollination is ensured because Workstream Leads contribute to SAB discussions, aligning activities and avoiding duplication.

Secretariat and funding

BEFA operates on a not-for-profit basis. The University of the Built Environment provides the secretariat and core funding, with transparent oversight from the University’s Executive. BEFA may welcome additional financial or in-kind support for specific projects while maintaining its independence.

What BEFA delivers

BEFA’s outputs are designed for use in practice. They help translate thought leadership into improvements in how we design, construct, manage and maintain the built environment.

strategic goals

Evidence-based reports

Synthesis of data, industry input and academic research into clear options for decision-makers

Forums, workshops and webinars

Multi-stakeholder forums, workshops and webinars that build shared understanding and produce agreed actions or charters.

Lifting industry competency

Usable guides, templates and prompts that help organisations implement better practice without reinventing the wheel

Benefits of partnering with BEFA

strategic goals

Thought leadership

Access to authoritative think pieces, reports and publications that shape policy and practice.

Relationships and networking

Participation in an industry-led advisory community and communities of practice that identify common priorities and foster collaboration across traditional boundaries.

Projects and initiatives

Opportunities to co-create projects on shared challenges and to contribute to the sector’s evidence base through applied, industry-led research and evaluation.

Knowledge exchange

Curated access to resources and insights, plus stakeholder events, seminars and lectures to disseminate learning efficiently across organisations.

Get involved

Whether you wish to partner on a workstream, propose a research collaboration or participate in BEFA’s events or knowledge exchange, we welcome approaches from organisations that share our ambitions for the sector’s future.

For media or partnership enquiries, please contact Nick Perkins, Head of BEFA, at: info@befa.org.uk or 0118 467 2041

INSPIRE events

BEFA plans to continue the University’s ‘INSPIRE’ events.