Empowering critical thinking through our R&I programme

Our internal Research and Innovation programme exists to empower staff to ask demanding questions about what we do and how we do it, and to invest time and energy in developing new methods and answers. We host meetings every two weeks for people to bring ideas and sound them out with colleagues. Everyone is encouraged to be original, creative or just plain eccentric at this stage: we believe that even the strangest of ideas can lead to fresh ways of doing things.

Our Research & Innovation Club has met regularly since early 2013. To mark the 100th meeting earlier this year, we have produced a booklet describing some of the best pieces of R&I work our staff have carried out in those four years. We have wondered whether the ‘death of the High Street’ is inevitable (no, it isn’t); we considered new ways to finance rolling stock, and why women seem more likely to be killed in cycling accidents than men. We have modelled the effect of the 2014/15 fall in fuel prices on travel, and reviewed the implications of an ageing population for transport; and we have benchmarked construction costs for LRT and Metro, and figured out why Transport for London found it is better if people don’t walk up escalators at busy London Underground stations. 

Our Head of R&I, John Swanson, says: “I feel quite proud of this booklet and the achievement it marks. The credit really goes to the many staff in Steer Davies Gleave who have proposed research topics, made a case for how they would be of value to the company, and then worked hard to deliver them. In nearly every case the work has subsequently been used in commercial project work. I think our clients will be interested and pleasantly surprised to see the range of topics that have been taken on.”

The booklet is available as a pdf, or in printed form. If you would like a copy, please contact [email protected] stating your preferred format.