CII 2025 Integrated R&D Ideation Process

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UPDTATE (on 6/10/2025): NEW IDEA SUBMISSION DEADLINE: AUGUST 8, 2025

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.

1.    Ideation Process

The CII Ideation process consists of four main steps:

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Idea Generation

• 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.

• Submitting ideas: all ideas must be submitted using the online form available here.

Idea Evaluation

• 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.

Idea Development:

• 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.

Prioritization and Ranking: Ideas are evaluated and ranked during the CII Fall BOA meeting workshop.

3. Summary of idea generation (TBD)

BOA Idea Generation Results (Updates on 4/22/2025)

On April 17, the CII Board of Advisors participated in a workshop that marked the beginning of our ideation process. The primary goal of the workshop was to capture an initial set of ideas and identify the overarching themes that the Board envisions for CII’s R&D initiatives for 2026. 

These ideas are now available for other groups to utilize. They may choose to further develop specific topics or use them as a starting point for their own brainstorming sessions. 

*Ideas selected by the FSC to be further developed by the committee members. 

The FSC reviewed the ideas and elected to support the development of four of them. However, all these ideas have the potential to be further developed into topics and submitted via the online form before the July 15 deadline. We encourage CII groups and individuals to consider these ideas, at the very least, as a starting point for their own ideation sessions. 

During the BOA meeting, we surveyed the attendees with a set of thought-provoking questions. We captured the themes across the responses, processed the results using AI tools, and presented the results on the second day of the meeting. We also want to share these results here so other CII groups and individuals can see the themes the CII Board of Advisors had in mind. This can also assist CII groups in organizing their own workshops. 

Table: Unique Themes for Each Question 

 We also presented the common themes observed across all questions: 

1. Integration of Technology & AI 

• Emphasis on using AI, automation, digital tools, and real-time data to optimize project planning, execution, and collaboration. 

• Desire for seamless data flow, tech-enabled decision-making, and gamification to enhance productivity. 

2. Standardization & Simplification 

• Calls for modularization, common components, and standard tools/processes to reduce complexity, improve speed, and lower costs. 

• A push to eliminate customizations and "waste" from legacy processes. 

3. Collaborative, Aligned Delivery Models 

• Shift toward collaborative contracts, shared risk/reward, and aligned teams from owners to contractors. 

• Focus on trust, transparency, and team-first mindsets as key enablers of success. 

4. Culture & Change Management 

• Recurring obstacle: resistance to change, especially with new tech and modern practices. 

• Need for cultural shifts, senior leadership buy-in, and mindset change to drive innovation. 

5. Workforce & Leadership Development 

• Investment in people skills, leadership, and cross-functional knowledge. 

• Focus on upskilling, attracting new talent, and replacing retiring expertise with tech-supported roles. 

6. Data-Driven Performance & Predictability 

• Desire for predictable, on-time, on-budget delivery with reduced variability. 

• Use of benchmarking, analytics, and business intelligence to inform decisions and improve capital efficiency. 

We appreciate the input from our Board of Advisors and would like to offer this to all members as a way to help their efforts to ideate new R&D topics. 

4. Summary of ideas selected in the evaluation step (TBD)

5. Prioritized ideas (TBD)

Appendices

Appendix A - Types of R&D Projects Sponsored by CII

Appendix B - Examples of Recent Initiatives

Research Initiatives

Development Initiatives