Dr Francesco Di Maddaloni awarded the British Academy Leverhulme Grant

BSSC Lecturer, Dr Francesco Di Maddaloni has received a Leverhulme Grant from the British Academy for his study on ‘Improving the dialogue and knowledge transfer between local authorities and firms in sustainable megaprojects’.

The project is led by Dr Francesco Di Maddaloni and other contributors are Prof. Jacqui Glass (UCL), Dr Armando Castro (UCL), Prof. Riccardo Vecchiato (Kingston Business School), and Dr Luigi Mosca (Imperial College).

The Leverhulme Small Research Grant is one of the British Academy’s highest profile programmes. The grant facilitates initial project planning and development; to support the direct costs of research, and to enable the advancement of research through workshops or conferences, or visits by or to partner scholars.

The project ‘Improving the dialogue and knowledge transfer between local authorities and firms in sustainable megaprojects’ aims to improve local community inclusion in construction megaprojects by investigating the knowledge transfer and value creation process between project-based organisations and local authorities affected by such projects. In other words, to understand how project organisations can improve knowledge transfer from projects to local authorities and, as such, improving the way their community is engaged and value distributed.

The findings of this research will contribute to the understanding of how organizations, particularly project-based organizations, can work together with local governments to improve and foster social sustainability in construction megaprojects.

Dr Francesco Di Maddaloni said: “This is a prestigious and highly competitive scheme, and I am glad to have the opportunity to investigate what I believe is a relevant and actual topic. This is the appropriate time to focus on the social sustainability of projects in local communities that will be severely disrupted and impacted by the recent economic and social turbulences. Efforts right now could help prevent further inequalities from increasing in society. Yet projects are rarely managed with effective and consistent stakeholder engagement mechanisms that are likely to improve inclusion and value creation and thus the quality of the projects in which the communities live."