Serving as the business voice of Canada’s BIM community, CanBIM represents, supports, and advocates on behalf of the entire Architectural, Engineering, Construction, Owner, Operator and Educational community to build a positive business environment for the effective deployment of BIM, for all engaged in utilizing BIM in Canada. The Canada BIM Council, or “CanBIM” as it is now known, was formed in 2008 by a small group of progressive organisations. Although these companies came from many different disciplines and were from across Canada, they all shared the common goal to steer their companies, their partners, and the wider industry to adopt new and efficient BIM/VDC processes and methodologies. They wanted to create a national beacon to attract people and firms from across the industry that understood the impact that new technology was having on the industry, and how this new way of thinking would radically change the ways they work.
CanBIMÂ’s Mission is to provide their membership with leadership, advocacy, educational and engagement opportunities around best practices for digital technologies and processes. Their vision is to advance civilization and improve the built environment through developing a robust community of industry-leading practitioners from building and infrastructure industry, who are proactively engaged in the effective deployment of digital technologies and processes. The website contains a wealth of resources from 2017 to date, and various articles on a wide range of subjects.
There are three main documents published on the CanBIM website in addition to their yearly spotlight on innovation reports. These additional documents include:
– Ontario General Contractors Association Guide to Construction and Design Technology (Jan/2022)
– Building Information Modelling for Wood Buildings, An Introductory Guide (11/2021)
– Building the Canada We Want in 2050 (07/2021)
IM Forum Panama is a permanent technical council, which brings together the main professionals and institutions related to BIM in Panama. BIM Forum Panama, seeks to channel technical concerns, knowledge and information related to BIM, also constituting an instance of development, dissemination and good practices for technological development in the construction sector. The purposes of BIM Forum Panama are purely technical and it meets under the coordination of the BIM Technical Commission based in the Panamanian Chamber of Construction (CAPAC), an entity that exercises its Executive Secretariat. In addition to CAPAC, representatives of the Panamanian Society of Engineers and Architects, the University of Panama, the Technological University of Panama and the Santa MarÃa la Antigua University participate in the BIM Forum Panama as members of the commission. BIM Forum Panama is an instance of voluntary participation that brings together companies and professionals who can contribute their knowledge and experiences to the improvement of techniques related to BIM.
The purpose of BIM Forum Panama is to become a promoter and facilitator of the adoption and implementation of BIM systems in the construction industry, through climbing training, the generation of initiatives, projects, activities and standards that add value to companies and professionals. This is achieved through the following group objectives:
– Collaborate with academic entities and other institutions, in the formation of capacities and competences related to BIM. Starting from a diagnosis or baseline of the state of the industry in terms of management of the processes of the construction cycle.
– Promote the dissemination and technology transfer related to BIM in Panama.
– Develop relationships and collaboration with national and international entities related to BIM.
– Promote and generate research, development, consolidation of knowledge, product libraries and technical information related to BIM in Panama.
– Generate nationally recognized standards for the development of projects with the use of BIM throughout its life cycle.
BIM Forum Uruguay is an organisation whose purpose is to promote and accelerate the process of adoption and implementation of the BIM methodology in Uruguay through research, dissemination and training activities. These are conducted in the construction industry, in the public sector, in the private sector and in academia.
This BIM Forum was formed by a collective group including the Chamber of Construction of Uruguay (CCU), the National Corporation for Development (CND), the Academy, institutions, companies and organisations, professionals, students and other stakeholders interested in BIM at a national level. Its vision is to lead implementation and be a reference, from a technical point of view.
BIM Forum Uruguay also functions as a national meeting place for BIM, seeking to contribute to the knowledge and development of companies, public institutions, professionals, students and other stakeholders linked to the construction sector. It disseminates good practices to contribute to the development of the construction industry, mainly in terms of productivity, sustainability and competitiveness.
The website contains many reference documents, videos and other information, including:
- Developing a National BIM Strategy or Plan.
- Publicising BIM tools/methodologies and promoting its adoption and implementation in both the public and private sectors, and in the field of education.
- Encouraging BIM training at all levels: students, technicians, professionals and teachers through joint work with the Academy. Dissemination and support of seminars, talks, events associated with BIM.
- Developing standards and regulations related to BIM.
- Promoting the articulation between all BIM stakeholders.
- Promoting research and innovation related to the use of BIM in the built environment.
Poznan University of Technology is a technical university conducting research and training in BSc, MSc, PhD engineering and postgraduate studies in 20 different fields, including Architecture and Urban Planning, Construction and Environmental Engineering. The university specialises in improvements throughout the construction lifecycle, including; preparation for the design, construction, asset management, renovation, reinforcement and demolition of buildings and civil engineering structures, all areas where the BIM technology is applicable.
The university has created this BIM website to act as a home and sharing platform for current research and discussion around BIM in Poland. It has a remit to provide research activities around BIM, understand the industries’ needs and try to address them. The website contains a few videos and useful links, but the bulk of the content is meeting minutes, outputs, reports and recordings of events that have been held either virtually or in person over the past decade.
Project Norway (Prosjekt Norge) is owned by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), with several other groups acting as academic partners. In addition, all state development agencies are partners, together with contractors, consulting companies and the Oil and Gas sector. Project Norway is set up as a national centre of expertise for the development of future project processes through research and knowledge sharing. The centre’s ambition is that project-based industries in Norway will be at the forefront internationally in value-creating and cost-effective project execution.
Its purpose is to initiate research and establish arenas for knowledge and experience sharing between academia, agencies such as asset owners and the business sector as suppliers within project-oriented activities. The project has a goal to support the continuous improvement of project execution among its partners by contributing to:
- Better and common development processes with our partners
- Create professional development in collaboration with the partners
- Create increased quality and added value for the partners
- Invite new developments through collaboration across the sectors
- Link the development of new knowledge more closely with project managers and owners.
Digitalisation is about establishing a basis for automatic information exchange between people, systems and machines. It’s about creating an information ecosystem where all systems’ generated information is utilised to streamline and optimise all processes. Project Norway is working to identify how digitalisation will help the Norwegian construction industry. Digitalisation will provide new opportunities to leverage available information to:
- Streamline and automate processes
- Optimise and foster development
- Share available information in order to take act faster and improve processes
- Share available information in order to improve analysis and decision-making.
Institut BIM Indonesia (iBIMi) is a non-profit organisation that started as an initiative of activists, practitioners and academics in the field of Design Modelling and BIM in Indonesia. iBIMi is presented as a platform to encourage the adaptation of BIM use in Indonesia through advocacy of BIM guidelines, protocols and technical instructions for all organisations and stakeholders.
iBIMi has also a mission to support the academic field to develop human resources that are ready to adapt BIM methods in the Indonesian Engineering and Construction Architecture industry.
The website contains details about the organisation as well as information and news articles related to recent work that iBIMi has undertaken. There is also a member registration page to request updates.
BIM Croatia (BIM Hrvatska) is a non-profit association that was founded in 2018 with the main goal of expanding and encouraging the national application of BIM. BIM Croatia brings together professionals of the Croatian construction industry, including engineers with many years of experience in the application of BIM in the design, construction and management of buildings. Given the many wide applications and technologies that support BIM, clear rules and procedures need to be set.
This was the guiding thought of the founders of the association, who want to contribute to the implementation of BIM in Croatia through their own experience. BIM Croatia contributes to its implementation by setting standards through different professions, jobs and software. It also advises, educates, encourages and informs. In view of these goals, the establishment of a citizens’ association as a non-profit and independent entity has emerged as the best way to achieve this.
The goals of BIM Croatia are:
- Initiating changes in the way buildings are planned and constructed, how they are used and managed using the BIM approach.
- Information on the construction industry, especially regarding BIM access.
- Encouraging and accelerating the implementation of BIM in construction.
- Increasing the competitiveness of the construction industry in domestic and foreign markets.
- Connecting professionals with domestic and international organisations, investors and companies.
- Standardisation of the application of BIM and the encouragement of better cooperation in construction.
The BIM Conference is organised by the Association for Construction Industry Digitalisation (BÅ«vniecÄ«bas Industrijas DigitalizÄcijas asociÄcija), a public, non-governmental organisation. This annual event brings together experienced professionals in the construction and technology sectors who understand the difficulties and challenges of the built environment and are able to find the right solutions. The association also cooperates with a number of academic institutions to deliver the event.
Representatives of the Latvian state, non-governmental organisations, the private sector and representatives from other countries speak at the conference, sharing their experiences of the benefits of using BIM in both public procurement and production, design and construction processes.
The conference generally consists of three parts: presentations, discussions and practical workshops. While there is usually a fee to attend the conference, the organisers make recordings of the sessions, which are available free of charge after the event.
VNI (Valsts Nekustamie Īpašumi) is the most active customer of construction projects in the public sector and is working to promote the digitalisation of construction in Latvia. In accordance with the priorities of the BIM Roadmap, VNI developed guidelines for BIM in public procurement (including standard customer information requirements) and established a training program that allows other public sector organisations to be educated on the use of BIM.
The BIM Competence Centre’s website shares VNI’s guidance and templates in addition to information regarding BIM seminars, organised in cooperation with the Ministry of Economics and National Standards Body. The site also collects case studies from VNI’s BIM projects.
Part of an ongoing programme of research, summary descriptions, results presentations and key reports are published on subjects such as, for instance ‘identifying the investments required for the implementation of building information modelling (BIM)’ and ‘Evaluation of benefits from the use of BIM in construction projects and operation of buildings and collection of good practices in the use of BIM’.
Further research is planned to be published on subjects such as the cost of implementing BIM, construction classification systems for BIM projects and providing free common data environment solutions for public procurers.
