Kickstart your innovation with the COINS Grand Challenge

Could your idea improve the construction industry or the built environment? The 2019 COINS Grand Challenge is an opportunity to win funding of over £115k, business support and more. Enter by 12 April at www.coins-grandchallenge.com

This global competition is organised by Construction Industry Solutions Ltd (COINS) to support innovation within the construction industry. Open to anyone with ideas to improve construction - from reducing costs, increasing efficiency, improving sustainability, safety, quality or compliance throughout the built life cycle.

The challenge has two entry categories, either professional (Open Competition) or undergraduate, with a focus on new or emerging technology. Two of last year’s winners include:
Ardalan Khosrowpour, CEO of tech start up OnSiteIQ, won the 2018 COINS Grand Challenge with his construction progress documentation and risk assessment platform for owners, developers, insurance companies, and construction managers.

He comments: “COINS’ support is invaluable. It’s amazing that they are giving back to the construction industry. It’s a great opportunity for start-ups, young start-ups more specifically, like us, to be supported by larger tech companies in the construction industry. It helped us to gain more traction, it has givne us access to the construction industry experts on the tech side and also on the construction side itself.”

Armelle Coutant, a student at Stanford University, was a winner of the Undergraduate competition. With degrees in both Biology and Architectural Engineering, her concept was to create connections between various fields to produce new and innovative materials for marine construction: https://vimeo.com/274507341

She comments “The key part of successful coral reef growth is the substrate that they have to attach on. Substrate is an important part of setting up a coral nursery. In the construction industry, attention is starting to draw towards the use of certain types of algae as a base for construction materials as the polymer properties of certain types of algae give strength all while maintaining core flexibility”. Armelle continues: “My experience at COINS Grand Challenge was absolutely incredible from start to finish. I especially want to mention how proud I was to meet such brilliant young people as my fellow finalists.”

Last year, 11 finalists represented 7 countries and a wide variety of ideas. The 2019 COINS Grand Challenge is now open for entries, with the deadline entries being 12 April – enter online at www.coins-grandchallenge.com