We channel Arup’s culture of creativity and discovery into research that makes an impact on the world around us.
Arup has long been known for innovation in the built environment. Our creative outlook helps us to address complex challenges head on, and devise optimal solutions for projects.
But we believe that innovation must also connect with strategic business thinking, so that our new ideas are relevant to the current and future needs of our clients and society as a whole.
Arup delivers outcome-focused research as well as practical services in strategic research planning. We do this in response to our clients’ challenges, in partnerships with businesses and in collaborations with academic, industry and government research bodies worldwide. Our Research Review demonstrates not only where Arup research brings technical excellence to clients, but also of the strength of our worldwide network.
Building global links
We build a network wherever we operate worldwide, connecting our researchers with academic and industrial partners and aligning our thinking with each country’s research priorities. In this way, we share the potential and benefit of research strategy, new knowledge and best practice.
Arup has strong working relationships with research councils globally, including a strategic partnership with the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) – the first partnership of its kind in the sector.
In Europe, Arup is a founding member of E2B, a public–private research programme striving to meet ambitious EU goals for energy-efficient buildings. With IBM, Marks & Spencer, Siemens, Veolia and GE, we are instrumental in the Institute for Sustainability, an independent charity supporting cross-sector innovation.
Through our memoranda of understanding with universities, such as Columbia University, New York, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and University College London, we collaborate and exchange knowledge.
Creating business advantage
For businesses, Arup guides the research process from concept to commercialisation. To translate critical issues into business opportunities, we work with clients, mirroring the proven research roadmapping techniques that we use to focus Arup’s in-house research.
Roadmapping often brings stakeholders, together as in our ongoing work for the UK’s National Platform for the Built Environment and with the Automative Council, to shape plans that win wide acceptance and support. The research agenda that emerges from roadmapping then becomes the basis for strategic investment, scoping studies, research programmes and the commercialisation of ideas – all of which Arup can help deliver.
Investing in ideas
Arup’s strong investment in research supports our specialists in delivering the highest quality solutions to clients. It also helps us evolve in response to the changing needs of our clients and the community.
Our researchers collaborated with the University of California, Berkley, to create a new method for modelling thermal comfort in underground stations. It is an immediately useful tool that we can apply worldwide in infrastructure design to achieve user comfort with less energy on such projects as Second Avenue Subway.
Elsewhere, our researchers take a long view. Our Life Cycle Tower study explored the potential use of timber in high-rise construction for the Austrian Research Fund’s ‘House of the Future’ programme.