Aims and activities
The EIB foundation is a leading Dutch economic research institute in the field of construction, housing and the built environment. Our work aims at fostering, in an independent and scientific way, the knowledge of economic and social questions that are
related to, or that are of importance for the Dutch construction industry and the built environment.
Research projects are carried out, both on own initiative and in response to outside demand, for clients in the private and the public sectors.
The EIB work comprises:
- market research, mainly in the areas of the various construction and real estate markets and related industries;
- short term forecasts as well as longer-term outlooks, scenario building and research about structural changes in the Dutch construction industry;
- scientific analyses of developments in the housing market to provide the basis for private and social housing policies, on a national as well as a regional level;
- cost-benefit analyses on built-environmental issues to facilitate policies of public or other bodies; construction labour market and schooling research;
- benchmarking of construction firms’ business performance, economic analyses in the field of construction (process) innovation, procurement policies, risk management and corporate strategies.
Status and organisation
The EIB Institute was founded in 1956 as an independent, non-profit organisation. A supervisory council, which consists of representatives of the Dutch employers’ organisation, the trade unions in the construction industry and clients, safeguards
the interests of the institute and the achievement of its objectives, but without interfering in the scientific research itself.
The scientific activities of EIB are concentrated in four research programmes. The programmes respectively focus on (1) construction market analysis, including labour market issues, (2) housing studies and project analysis, (3) real estate analysis and research in the field of construction companies and (4) civil engineering and procurement studies. The staff mainly consists of economists and comprises about 20 persons.
Financial resources
The institute is partly financed by contributions from the Education and Development Fund for the construction industry. An increasing part of the institutes’ resources is coming from contract research. A substantial share of these commissions originates from the Dutch government.
