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

建筑、工程和施工（AEC）行业不断面临挑战，在预算、进度以及社会和环境法律约束的范围内设计和建造独特的、大型的和技术复杂的项目。这些复杂性在其生命周期中导致冲突、索赔和争端。据估计，该行业每年在冲突和索赔上花费130 - 260亿美元，如果加上法律的纠纷的额外费用，总成本高达500亿美元。这些数字突出表明，需要有一个全面的框架来管理冲突、索赔和争端。在此背景下，本文的研究将集中于实现以下六个目标：（1）基于项目冲突、索赔和争议是由于项目关键特征的相互作用而发生的假设，了解项目冲突、索赔和争议发生的原因;（2）确定项目冲突概况并估计这些索赔的预期成本，以代表预期的冲突数量和成本，（3）了解预防/解决冲突所需的避免和解决争端技术的特点，这是基于这样一种假设，即项目中发生的某些类型的冲突可能需要在有效性和经济可行性方面采取不同的解决办法;（4）确定所选择的争端避免和解决技术在解决冲突和最大限度地减少其影响方面的有效性，并估计每种类型冲突的预期解决价值，以便提供预定计划，将具体技术纳入项目解决阶梯;（5）评估给定项目的争议避免和解决技术实施的成本/收益权衡，并确定争议避免和解决技术投资概况，以证明每种所选争议避免和解决技术所需的额外资本支出的合理性;以及（6）将结果整合到冲突管理计划中，以主动监控和控制项目中冲突的发生和解决。为了实现这些目标，拟议的研究方法将包括一个正式的周期的数据收集，正规化，测试，验证和完善。该项目将侧重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这一过程。同时，从业人员将因参与拟议框架的制定和测试而受益。为了接触到没有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成果。最终，为了使研究真正成功，从不同群体的学生和从业者的参与，在经济，社会，文化，种族和性别背景方面，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.