Collaborative Research: Integrated Conflict, Claim, and Dispute Avoidance, Mitigation and Resolution Methodology for Large-Scale Design and Construction Projects (C2D)

建筑，工程和建设（AEC）行业不断挑战设计和建造独特的，大型和技术复杂的项目在预算，进度，社会和环境法律的限制范围内。这些复杂性导致了它们生命周期中的冲突、索赔和纠纷。据估计，该行业每年在冲突和索赔上花费130 - 260亿美元，如果加上法律纠纷的额外费用，总成本高达500亿美元。这些数字强调需要一个包罗万象的框架来管理冲突、索赔和争端。在此背景下，拟议的研究将侧重于实现以下六个目标：(1)基于这些冲突是由于关键项目特征的相互作用而发生的假设，了解项目中冲突、索赔和争议发生背后的原因；(2)确定项目冲突概况，并估计这些索赔的预期成本，以表示项目生命周期内冲突、索赔和争议的预期数量和成本；(3)基于项目中发生的某些类型的冲突在有效性和经济可行性方面可能需要不同的解决方法的假设，了解预防/解决冲突所需的争议避免和解决技术的特征；(4)确定所选择的争议避免和解决技术的有效性，以解决冲突并尽量减少其影响，并估计每种冲突的预期解决价值，以便提供一个预定的计划，在项目解决阶梯中包括特定的技术；(5)评估特定项目中避免争议和解决争议技术实施的成本/收益权衡，并确定避免争议和解决争议技术的投资概况，以证明每种选择的避免争议和解决争议技术所需的额外资本支出是合理的；(6)将结果整合到冲突管理计划中，以主动监视和控制项目中的冲突发生和解决。为了实现这些目标，建议的研究方法将包括数据收集、形式化、测试、验证和改进的正式周期。该项目将专注于在每个阶段整合研究、工业和教育。通过这种整合，学生将获得宝贵的经验，让建筑和行业合作伙伴参与到这个过程中来。同时，从业者将通过参与所提议框架的开发和测试而受益。为了接触到未参与拟议活动的教育工作者、从业人员、研究人员和学生，将积极寻求广泛传播项目结果。最终，为了使研究真正成功，在经济、社会、文化、种族和性别背景方面，来自不同群体的学生和实践者的参与将是一个优先事项。

Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) Industry are continuously challenged to design and build unique, large and technically complex projects within the boundaries of budget, schedule, and social and environmental law constraints. These complexities lead to conflicts, claims and disputes during their life cycle. It is estimated that the industry spends $13-26 billion per year on conflicts and claims with total costs reaching as high as $50 billion when the additional expenses of legal disputes are added. These figures emphasize the need for an encompassing framework to manage conflicts, claims and disputes. In this context, the proposed research will focus on achieving the following six objectives: (1) understand causes behind conflict, claim and dispute occurrence in Projects based on the hypothesis that these conflicts occurs due to an interaction of key project characteristics; (2) determine a Project Conflict Profile and estimate the Expected Costs of these claims to represent the expected number and cost of conflict, claim and dispute during the project life cycle; (3) understand characteristics of the Dispute Avoidance and Resolution Techniques required to prevent/resolve conflicts based on the hypothesis that some types of conflicts occurring on a project may require different resolution approaches both in terms of effectiveness and economic feasibility; (4) determine effectiveness of chosen Dispute Avoidance and Resolution Techniques to resolve conflicts and minimize its impact, and Estimate the expected Value of Settlement for each type of conflicts in order to provide a predetermined plan to include specific techniques in the project resolution ladder; (5) evaluate cost/benefit tradeoffs of Dispute Avoidance and Resolution Techniques implementations for a given project, and determine a Dispute Avoidance and Resolution Techniques investment profile to justify the additional capital expenditures required for each of the chosen Dispute Avoidance and Resolution Techniques; and, (6) integrate results in a Conflict Management Plan to proactively monitor and control conflict occurrence and resolution in a project. To achieve these objectives, the proposed research methodology will consist of a formal cycle of data collection, formalization, testing, validation, and refinement. The project will focus on integrating research, industry and education at every stage. Through this integration, students will gain valuable experiences by having construction and industry partners involved in the process. Concurrently, practitioners will benefit by their involvement in the development and testing of the proposed framework. In order to reach educators, practitioners, researchers, and students who were not involved in the proposed activity, broad dissemination of the project results will be actively sought. Ultimately, in order to make the research truly successful, involvement from a diverse group of students and practitioners, in terms of economic, social, cultural, racial, and gender backgrounds, will be a priority.