Introducing the cidb Centres of Excellence (COE): The cidb Act directs the organisation to encourage appropriate research and to develop a construction industry research agenda aligned with national development priorities. Further to this, the Act allows for the establishment of a knowledge centre through which industry and clients can access knowledge and experience on innovation and best practice.

The cidb COE establish partnerships with universities to facilitate research capacity and academic development in the construction industry. Through the centres,  the construction regulator is able to promote sustained Research and Development, and academic capacity in support of the built environment and the local construction industry. Currently, the support is focused on developing capacity amongst black and female academics and researchers.

The cidb stimulates curriculum improvement in Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges by coordinating and supporting construction skills through supporting participation in the WorldSkills international competitions. The 2022 bricklaying national championship underwent intensive training in preparation for the WorldSkills competition which took place in Austria.

Aligning with the cidb’s strategic objective of industry transformation, the centres promote increased training of built environment researchers, offering postgraduate bursaries as well as an internship programme with a specific focus on black female students and the needs of the public sector. The cidb University of Johannesburg COE is established in the Department of Construction Management and Quantity Surveying and undertakes research on pertinent industry issues, while developing high-level academic skills at the master’s and doctoral levels

In the 2020/21 financial year, the centre achieved the following:

• Graduated two PhDs
• Enrolled twelve postgraduate students
• Employed three postdoctoral fellows to support postgraduate candidates
• Completed two cidb commissioned research reports
• Published two books and several papers in peer-reviewed journal

In December 2020, the centre published ‘The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the construction industry’, which assessed the response of construction companies to the Covid-19 hard lockdown and the challenges they faced. It also documented measures that could hasten the recovery of construction post-lockdown.