Niraj is an Associate Professor in Built Environment and leads the Construction, Process and Management research group at Northumbria University. Niraj’s research interests cover people and process related aspects of the built environment including how organisations and people work in the context of technological innovation, disaster resilience, education and skills development.

He has previously led the Digital Construction centre at Birmingham City University and managed the MSc in Building Information Modelling and Management programme. He has worked with a number of companies including Willmott Dixon, Ministry of Justice, Building Alliance, Wienerberger, KPMG, AHR Global Architects, Associated Architects, Cundall, Costain, NG Bailey, Mott MacDonald, Rider Levett Bucknall, Thomas Vale and ACIVICO. Between 2007-11, as an academic coordinator at the UK Higher Education Academy’s Centre for Education in the Built Environment (CEBE) he has led several accelerating change initiatives to foster collaboration and dialogue between industry, higher education and professional bodies.

He has made more than 60 peer-reviewed publications, coordinated various conferences, involved extensively in research bidding and managed several research and employer engagement projects such as ORBEE, ACBEE, ExcelDL, ISLAND I & II, CKE and H2B innovation grants.

Niraj is an Associate Professor in Built Environment and leads the Construction, Process and Management research group at Northumbria University. Niraj’s research interests cover people and process related aspects of the built environment including how organisations and people work in the context of technological innovation, disaster resilience and education. He has previously led the Digital Construction centre at BCU and managed the MSc in BIM and Management programme. His research interests are:  

• Construction Project Management – Niraj’s main focus is on cost management aspects of projects. He is an ARCOM committee member and interested in construction management research covering procurement routes including integrated project insurance, Modern Method of Construction and offsite manufacturing, cultural and leadership challenges in projects and supply chain management.
• Digital construction – Niraj explores the wider impact of digitalisation on the built environment and focuses on people and process related aspects of Building Information Modelling. He has worked with clients, consultants, contractors and manufacturers in various digital initiatives. His current digital transformation interest is on housing, infrastructure and asset management areas.
• Disaster resilience – His current research focuses on socio-technical aspects of disaster resilience, mainly on disaster resilience using information modelling and stakeholder management. He has contributed to RICS funded disaster resilience projects that focused on developing knowledge management capacity for disaster management in the built environment.
• Built Environment Education: He was an Academic Coordinator in the UK Higher Education Academy’s Centre for Education in the Built Environment (CEBE) between 2008 and 2011. He managed and contributed to various accelerating change agenda initiatives to foster collaboration and dialogue between industry, higher education and professional bodies.