Topics in cement and concrete research

In recent decades, the construction sector has faced many changes. One of these changes is the shift in the role of national government from one-sided practices in which the government was solely responsible for strategic and long-term spatial planning to a multi-actor and multi-level arena. One outcome was a rearrangement of the balance between public and private responsibilities. This has led to new procurement routes and contracts as Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and Public Private Partnerships (PPP), as well as to a more performance-oriented client (both public and private). At the same time, construction firms changed their strategic focus from cost efficiency to adding value for money for the client, resulting in new contract forms such as Design & Construct (D&C), Building, Operate & Transfer (BOT) and variants there from. So far, governments of most European countries have their own restrictive specifications for the use of building materials.