Staff Profile

Dr Graham J Brewer is an Associate Professor in Construction Management at the University of Newcastle, Australia, where he was first appointed at the end of 1999. He is currently Deputy Head of the School of Architecture and Built Environment, and was previously Head of Discipline, Building. During this time he has undertaken various administrative roles at School, Faculty, and University level, and is currently a member of Academic Senate.

Graham Brewer graduated with his Doctorate in 2008. This work embodied the characteristics of his research, which fall broadly into three categories:

Innovation by individual firms. This work has taken three forms: firstly, enabling the individual firm to benchmark itself against sector-leading enterprises in terms of technology and capability; secondly, identifying strengths and weaknesses in its capability profile, and lastly; performance testing of project portal applications for fit with enterprise objectives. The first two were commercialised by the Cooperative Research Centre for Construction Innovation (CRC-CI) and the third was undertaken as commissioned consultancy work.

Innovation across project teams. The key output in this regard was a series of four Best Practice guides and a fifth companion volume published as e-books by the CRC-CI. This work attracted the attention of "Constructing Excellence" in the UK, who negotiated with the CRC-CI for inclusion of its metrics in their own benchmarking mechanism.

Sociological influences on Innovation. In the wake of completing the previous two bodies of research it was apparent that there was a gulf between the stated preferences and intentions of enterprise leaders in relation to ICT and their subsequent actions. This spawned Dr Brewer's doctoral research, which looked at the attitudes and behaviours of ICT decision-makers in the AEC sector, revealing a raft of boundedly rational influences on decision-making, resulting in the first comprehensive map of the ICT decision domain. his dissertation subsequently received three research awards: Australian Institute of Building NSW President’s Award for Excellence in Research; The Chartered Institute of Building Australasia Excellent Building Postgraduate (Research) Award (PhD), and; Post Graduate Research Award: School of Architecture and Built Environment, University of Newcastle.

The previous three areas of excellence in research have led him to be sought out by industry leaders in order to advise on issues related to the advent of disruptive technologies such as building information modelling. Over the last two years he has undertaken commissioned research for the Tasmanian Building and Construction Industry Training Board and others in relation to disruptive innovation.

As an educator the quality of Graham Brewer's teaching has been recognised with multiple nominations and awards, culminating in an Australian Learning and Teaching Council citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning in 2008.

Dr Brewer's ongoing community-based commitments include: Fellow of the Australian Institute of Building, its Professional Excellence and University Accreditation Panels;external examiner for the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors: Oceania; New South Wales Board of Studies Curriculum Review Panel for the Built Environment (University Sector representative). He has participated in external reviews for multiple university departments and research centres, as well as Cooperative Research Centres.