According to research conducted by UK Construction Week in partnership with BRE, three quarters of construction professionals do not believe the industry is ready to meet mandatory BIM Level 2 requirements by 2016.

Just over 74 per cent of respondents think the industry will fall short of this target, which is due to come into effect for all procurement projects from central government and its agencies next year. In addition, a further 62 per cent of respondents said that they do not understand what is needed in order to meet the requirements of BIM Level 2.

The research, which questioned more than 1,200 architects, contractors, developers, engineers and product manufacturers about their experiences of BIM, revealed a number of uncertainties throughout the industry. In particular, the results uncovered a tension between the expectations of the specification community and the perceived demand for BIM-compliant products by manufacturers and suppliers.

Almost 71 per cent of the non-manufacturing respondents believe that suppliers are not moving quickly enough to provide BIM ready information. This figure appears to be confirmed by the survey results, with two thirds of the building product manufacturers stating their products are not yet available as BIM objects. Conversely though, when questioned about the main obstacle to creating BIM-ready components, 41 per cent of manufacturers said there is simply not enough demand for this from their customers.

Looking at the barriers to more widespread adoption of BIM and the most-cited challenges are a lack of in-house expertise (25 per cent), inadequate understanding within the supply chain (15 per cent) and limited time to commit to training (14 per cent). Overwhelmingly, 96 per cent of respondents replied that there is a need for greater support and training in BIM.

Overall however, acceptance and adoption of BIM does appear to be on the increase, with the majority (85 per cent) of respondents claiming that its introduction is a positive development for the industry. Only 16 per cent of the sample have never used BIM and have no plans to do so, while the remainder are already active or are preparing to embark on BIM projects in the near future.

Richard Morey, group event director at Media 10, the event company behind UK Construction Week, said: “It’s interesting that the survey results have revealed such a gulf between the expectations and reality of BIM implementation. It’s clear that there’s still a high level of confusion about what’s needed across the industry and there’s an obvious thirst for high quality information and training – which is exactly what we are aiming to provide through the dedicated BIM Prospects Theatre at UK Construction Week, in conjunction with BRE.”

Taking place at the Birmingham NEC from 6 – 8 October, UK Construction Week combines nine shows under one roof, uniting 1,000 exhibitors with an expected audience of 55,000 visitors. For more information visit www.ukconstructionweek.com