Firstly, following the demise of 'The Cutting Edge' as the RICS real estate research conference, we are now increasingly wanting to widen the scope of COBRA (which was traditionally the RICS equivalent event for construction research) away from a focus simply on construction issues, to embrace wider issues relating to the built environment. We are keen to see COBRA relevant to a much broader constituency of RICS partner universities, to make it an event that encourages as wide a range of participation as possible.
The Call for Papers for COBRA 2008 will be issued in early 2008 and full details of the forthcoming COBRA conferences can be found at: www.rics.org/cobra
(Note that the brochure was written and designed before a decision was made to embrace a wider range of issues within COBRA, so it does still relate largely to construction research. However, the information on dates and venues is still correct.)
Secondly, and part of the overall efforts to ensure that COBRA remains a dynamic event, as of the 2008 conference, being held in Dublin on 4-5 September 2008, we will be including a doctoral session, where we will invite PhD students at RICS partner universities to present and debate their work, and to discuss issues relating to post-graduate work. To support this, I am also very pleased to announce that the editors of the journal 'Construction Innovation' are willing to provide a prize to the best paper presented in the doctoral session, of one year's free subscription to the journal. For COBRA 2008, this session will be led by Professor Les Ruddock of the University of Salford, and this will be held on the afternoon of Thursday 4 September 2008.
I would, therefore, be grateful if you could circulate this invitation, inviting anyone interested in taking part to contact us, with details of their PhD work. The contact point for this is Les Ruddock at the University of Salford, UK, on l.ruddock@salford.ac.uk They should provide details of topic of the PhD being undertaken, with an indication of the stage that they will have reached by September 2008. It would be useful if we could receive details by the end of the year, if possible. I can also confirm that the PhD students taking part in this session will be entitled to a reduced registration fee for COBRA.
I do hope that this is of interest to you - if you have any questions on this, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Stephen Brown Head of Research RICS
12 Great George Street
London SW1P 3AD
UNITED KINGDOM
Find details of RICS research work at: www.rics.org/research
Tel: +44 (0)20 7334 3725
Fax: +44(0)20 7334 3894