CII's Integrated R&D Ideation Process
Overview and Call for ideas
The Construction Industry Institute (CII) has developed an Integrated R&D Ideation Process to generate, develop, and prioritize research and development ideas. This process aims to maximize the value and impact of CII's initiatives for its members by fostering innovation and collaboration.
CII is now accepting ideas via an online form. These ideas should align with CII's Research and Development scope. They can include research ideas addressing opportunities and problems that lack clear and general solutions, or development topics that fit CII’s scope in terms of professional development or initiatives that can benefit from a concerted effort involving members from multiple organizations (for instance, past ideation session identified a need for the upcoming CII Bootcamp – an intro level course to CII practices, and the CII NextGen initiative)..
Ultimately, these ideas are intended to improve the delivery of capital projects, making them safer, more cost-effective, and meeting expectations in terms of quality, sustainability, safety, etc, while also improving the performance of the delivery of individual projects. For an overview of past ideas that became R&D topics, see Appendix A.
By participating in CII's ideation process, members can significantly influence the direction of CII’s research and development efforts. This collaborative approach ensures that the most promising and impactful ideas are pursued, driving both transformational and incremental improvements in the delivery of capital projects.
The CII Ideation goal is to ensure that CII resources are used effectively to maximize value for members. Specific objectives include:
Simplify the process for all CII members, committees, and CBAs by maintaining a consistent timeline. This will align the ideation process with the budget approval process to ensure strategic allocation of funds.
Encourage input from all CII committees, CBAs, academics, and member companies.
Balanced Portfolio: Support a balanced portfolio of research and development projects, including both tactical and strategic initiatives.
Ideas can be submitted any time using the online form (link below) here but individuals and groups are encouraged to read the sections below to better understand the process.
The CII Ideation process consists of four main steps:
The official kickoff for idea generation is a workshop at the CII Spring Board of Advisors (BOA) meeting.
CII committees/CBAs organize their idea generation. This can consist of an idea generation workshop or as a continuous capture of ideas in meetings (we recommend using Mural to capture the ideas).
Ideas can be submitted via the online link and should include a short description of the opportunity or problem being addressed, the objectives and expected outcomes. Individuals can also use this form to organize the idea prior to submitting it online: CII_Idea_Submission_Form v2.docx
Submitting ideas: all ideas must be submitted using the online form available here.
CII Forms an ad-hoc task force composed of the chairs and/or vice-chairs of its committees to evaluate ideas.
The group meets 2-3 times to review ideas and vote on the ideas that should be presented to the CII Board of Advisors
The discussion normally is framed as how the ideas perform regarding impact and risk.
Normally the group targets a set of 10-12 ideas to be sent to the BOA.
Selected ideas are further refined, developed, and fine-tuned to be presented at the fall BOA meeting (1 slide per idea).
Committees/CBAs are asked to review ideas and address comments that may have arisen at the evaluation phase. Note that ideas need to be clearly summarized into one slide.
April 17: Kickoff at BOA
May-July: Period for idea generation
July 14: Idea Submission Deadline (ideas submitted after this deadline can be considered in the following year)
September 16: Deadline to announce ideas selected for the BOA
October: Developed topics Due
November 19: CII Fall BOA Meeting workshop to review and rank ideas