Congratulations to Dr Luis Gomez-Agustina who has become an external examiner of the Masters programme in Applied Acoustics at University of Derby (UK). Dr Gomez-Agustina was invited to apply for the position, as he is known to the University of Derby Acoustics team from the courses re-accreditation carried out by the Institute of Acoustics (IOA) in 2019, in which he was co-lead of the accreditation panel.

This appointment will provide an opportunity to learn from good practice implemented at other leading universities. The new role will also help to strengthen the links between LSBU and the University of Derby and stimulate future teaching, enterprise and research collaborations.

Barnaby Rush, who is Masters students, has conducted research to examine the legal and contractual barriers to BIM implementation and how the NEC4 standard form of construction contract has developed to try and incorporate BIM into the contractual arrangement of parties, in order to overcome these barriers and increase wider BIM uptake. His research specifically focused from the viewpoint of contractors working in the British civil engineering industry, as he works for a main contractor in the British civil engineering industry and has first-hand experience of the lack of BIM uptake in this industry compared to the building or architecture industries. There has also been little previous research from the viewpoints of civil engineering contractors on BIM.

Findings from his questionnaire survey and interviews so far suggest that the NEC4 has made several positive changes to incorporate BIM into the contractual arrangements of parties which should assist in increasing BIM uptake in the