Biography
Professor Robert Hairstans leads the Centre for Offsite Construction and Innovative Structures (COCIS) research group at 麻豆社区 (ENU), is Skills and EDI lead for the Centre for Net Zero Carbon High Density Buildings (Cen NZ High DB) and the founding Director of the Centre for Advanced Timber Technology (CATT) at the New Model Institute of Technology and Engineering (NMITE).
Professor Hairstans in 2024 received the Structural Timber Pioneer of the Year Award having 鈥渓ed pioneering research into industrialised timber and offsite construction solutions and developed multiple innovative products which has led to significant knowledge exchange with hundreds of industry and public sector stakeholders. Impact from the research has led to a number of award-winning projects.鈥 He also received the 2024 Offsite Construction Pioneer of the Year Award as recognition of his "true pioneering journey from research to implementation to capturing and adapting from lessons learnt. It is great to see how research is contributing to the delivery within the offsite sector. Standout thought leadership being more than academic." In 2023 he was presented with a Built Environment 鈥 Smarter Transformation (BE-ST) Beacon Award for being 鈥渁 major contributor and collaborator for truly impactful research and innovation. This award is recognition of more than a decade of endeavour to support BE-ST on our collective mission to decarbonise the built environment鈥
As has been evidence he is a creative thinker and accomplished collaborator who works extensively with industry and external stakeholders to accelerate change in professional practice and construction delivery towards sustainable approaches. From seed to built environment he is a thought leader in the field of timber technology and engineering and has spent his career adding value to the supply chain transferring knowledge outputs for maximum influence by innovatively improving pathways for upskilling, conducting international knowledge exchanges and having research applied into practice via demonstration projects or 鈥淟iving Labs鈥. His specialist expertise is in industrialised timber and offsite modern methods of construction (MMC).
He is currently (2025) Co-Chair of the UK Government Timber in Construction Policy Roadmap Implementation Board leading on Skills and Education and a member of the Scottish Construction Leadership Forum - MMC Working Group. In 2024 he co-authored the UK Gov Ministry of Housing Communities & Local Government project report on Volumetric Modular Construction and has led 3 number Scottish Government reviews of offsite construction (2013, 2015 and 2019). His work is also recognised globally, he had a visiting appointment at Harvard Graduate School of Design (2018 & 2019) and was a contributor to the MODX, National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Offsite Construction for Housing Roadmap (2023).
Professor Hairstans was academic lead in establishing the UK only Trimble Technology Lab at ENU in 2019 as part of multi-million-dollar gift agreement which was refreshed for a further 5 years in 2024. This partnership followed from his original EPSRC 1st Grant in 2010 and his major contribution in 2015 to the ENU Queens Anniversary Prize for Innovation in Timber Construction. His track record of impact was captured in a 2021 Unit of Assessment 13 鈥 Architecture, Built Environment and Planning REF Impact Statement on 鈥淓nabling new industry practice in offsite timber construction鈥 which contributed to the ENU standing as the top Scottish modern university for research power and research impact. Two departmental impact statements were submitted by ENU to UofA 13 and these were rated 4* and 3*.
The track record of Professor Hairstans demonstrates a consistency of embedding research into practice throughout his career. From the original UK award-winning Knowledge Transfer Partnership with Oregon Timber Frame (2005), via the COCIS research group 拢4.5+M of research and commercial projects, to providing the academic leadership to establishing Offsite Solutions Scotland (OSS) an award-winning cooperative of innovative MMC companies in Scotland he consistently collaborates for impact. This portfolio of work led to the recent 拢1.4M Innovate UK funded (2021) Homegrown Biogenic-Offsite Manufacture (Bio-OSM) Accelerator 鈥淭ransforming Timber鈥 project. Transforming Timber has resulted in the commercialization of UK sourced mass timber construction and the launch of a platform for knowledge exchange. Running concurrently with this was his role as founding Director of CATT which established a new competency framework for timber in construction skills and the launch of award winning Timber Technology, Engineering and Design (TED) short courses endorsed by the Chartered Institute of Architectural Technology (CIAT) and Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB). All of this is cited for best practice in the Timber in Construction Policy Roadmap launched in 2023 which was reindorsed by the new UK Government in 2025.