About IPD | Integrated Project Delivery | Department of Civil Engineering

Welcome to the homepage of the Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) group. Our group's research focuses on the processes that support how infrastructure management activities are planned, executed, and delivered. These activities are always related to key transition challenges in the built environment, such as climate change, resilience, the circular economy, digitisation and skilled labour shortages.

Mission

Our mission is to contribute to the development of an infrastructure sector that is robust, sustainable, and resilient.

Doing so, we aim to support the civil engineering domain by analysing challenges, developing new ideas, educating students and practitioners, and providing actionable perspectives and practical solutions. We draw upon expertise from various disciplines, including engineering, management studies, and public administration. Our research and solutions span all levels—from individual projects to large-scale programmes, and from single organisations to entire sectors within the built environment. We leverage our interdisciplinary skills, diverse backgrounds, creative thinking, and connections to global knowledge to address complex problems in civil infrastructure.

We believe that this mission can only be achieved by collaborating as partners with governments, private organisations, communities, and other educational and research institutions. Moreover, this mission is also embedded in the courses we offer within the civil engineering bachelor’s and master’s programmes. Together, we pursue a shared goal: ensuring the civil engineering field is prepared for the future.

Our research work combines expertise and insights from various fields, including construction management, public administration, transition studies, and systems engineering. We use an integrative approach to tackle the complexity and uncertainty of infrastructure development. Through participatory methods, we collaborate closely with practitioners in our research. Doing so, our research delivers action perspectives and practical tools for the industry while generating internationally recognised research output.

Research & education

Two research lines are formulated that guide the IPD mission. Research line A addresses the broad questions related to the transitions in the infrastructure sector and they way these transitions can be governed. Research line B looks deeper into the organizational and project practices and how they can be improved in line with a future-proof sector. The research projects are connected to those research lines.

A: Resilient infrastructure systems

To address societal challenges in civil engineering and support actors operating within the built environment, we participatory develop socio-technical scenarios that envision and promote a sustainable, adaptive, and resilient sector. These scenarios aim to provide positive, actionable futures that empower people and organisations in infrastructure to navigate and overcome complex transition challenges. We study and develop ways to translate those alternative futures into actionable governance modes, interventions, and organisational strategies.

We work on improving practical ways to manage multi-stakeholder processes that involve for example government agencies, contractors, designers, and local communities. By studying the practices with and within these groups, we help create and implement innovative policies, practices, and procedures in infrastructure. By doing this, we learn how innovations – like working towards a standardised circular solution or adopting digital tools for project coordination – can be supported or blocked by novel ways of governance, management and interaction.

B: Value-based project and programme delivery

To drive the change in line with the transition challenges, we actively establish, nurture, and study interdisciplinary, mission-oriented ecosystems in the infrastructure domain. These ecosystems can be understood as public-private collections of actors that align their activities and collaboration forms towards specific transition challenges. Within these ecosystems, clients, contractors, designers, and academics collaborate to explore, co-create, and implement forward-thinking innovations that address current and future challenges. Relevant examples are the shift from project structures to programme structures or the establishment of public-private innovation networks.

We support and enable innovation across public and private organisations as well as infrastructure project practices. By fostering capacity-building and guiding actors in the adoption of future-ready approaches, we advance methodologies in asset management, risk management, value management, and general project and process management, ensuring they remain fit for purpose in an evolving landscape. Doing so, we aim to further the civil engineering processes in the direction of the transitions in the sector.

In both our research and educational activities, we work closely together with the Market Dynamics (MD) group (formerly the groups comprised the cluster of Construction Management and Engineering, CME) and the Climate-Resilient Infrastructure Systems (CRIS) group. Together with MD and CRIS, we still develop and execute the CME profile of the civil engineering master’s programme and contribute to the Sustainability and resilience profile. Moreover, there are several cross-overs and collaborations in research and education with the broader CEM department and the BMS and ITC faculties.

MSc Construction Management and Engineering

Collaboration

We are fortunate to actively collaborate with a plethora of private and public organisations across the civil engineering domain. Collaboration could take place by involvement in educational activities or in dedicated research projects or programmes.

Ongoing Collaborations

Research projects are nearly always executed in collaboration with other research institutes, public organisations, and private sector organisations. The project page shows these partners and collaborations per project. However, in our research and education, we heavily rely on long-standing partnerships. Important partners with which we collaborate beyond single research projects include:

Municipality of Enschede
Municipality of Zwolle
Province of Overijssel
Water authority Vechtstromen
Water authority Drents-Overijsselse Delta
Rijkswaterstaat infrastructure agency
Minstry of Infrastructure and Water Management
Pioneering
Auburn University, AL, USA

Collaboration on research

If you are interested in commissioning or collaborating in research with our group, you can reach out to Leentje Volker. For inquiries about specific subjects, projects or initiatives, please reach out to the contact person mentioned in the corresponding page.

Collaboration on education

For contributions to or collaborations on CEM/CME research programmes, thesis projects, and vocational you can reach out to Robin de Graaf. For inquiries about specific courses or expertises, please reach out to the contact person mentioned in the corresponding page.