Digitalisation towards Safety in Construction: The Facilitating Role of Industrialised Construction (Ref: ABCE-EBE-AS1)

About the Project

This PhD project lies at the intersection of three topics: Occupational Safety and Health (OSH), digital technologies and industrialised construction. Digital4OSH (https://www.digital4osh.com/) is a research group bringing together researchers and practitioners from Loughborough and across Europe. For several years, the group has been studying the application of digital technologies to the management of OSH in construction. Despite governmental support to realise broader pre-manufactured value in construction through Industrialised Construction (IC), our understanding of how various organisations operating in this space are leveraging digital technologies to manage building safety risks is limited. This project aligns with the Building Safety Act, and aims to explore how to better maintain a clear ‘golden thread’ of information throughout pre-manufactured construction products’ lifecycle. The PhD project will address an emerging need to explore how various industrialised systems, components, and structures align (or not) with the Building Safety Act. This will then inform the development of an online platform which records such safety performance using digital tools. One of the core objectives of this project is to enable the benchmarking of organisations and even countries against each other via a web-based platform. The platform also facilitates the sharing and dissemination of best practice reports. This research would address questions such as: How well are existing practices in line with the Building Safety Act? How can engagement with the use of a platform be incentivised? What data should/can be measured and how can it be visualised? How can the information within the online platform be aligned to organisational and national business models in the construction industry?

Name of primary supervisor/CDT lead:
Dr. Ali M. Saad a.saad@lboro.ac.uk

Names of secondary supervisors:
Professor Peter Demian https://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/abce/staff/peter-demian/
Dr. Manuel Tender (External)

Entry requirements:
Applicants should have, or expect to achieve, at least a 2:1 honours degree (or equivalent) in a relevant subject. A relevant master’s degree and/or experience is desirable.

English language requirements:
Applicants must meet the minimum English language requirements. Further details are available on the International website (http://www.lboro.ac.uk/international/applicants/english/).

Bench fees required: No

Closing date of advert: 30 June 2026

Start date: October 2026

Full-time/part-time availability: Full-time 3 years

Fee band: 2025/26 Band RB (UK £5,006, International £28,600)

Project search terms:
construction management, occupational health, industrialised construction, modern methods of construction (MMC), modular Construction, volumetric, prefabrication, digital technologies, digitalisation

Enquiries Email ABCE:
abce.pgr@mailbox.lboro.ac.uk