The 24th sponsorship award ceremony of the German Facility Management Association (GEFMA) took place at the end of June 2021. Due to coronavirus-related restrictions, this year’s awards were presented online. The main prize of EUR 3,000 went to Dr Simon Ashworth, a lecturer at the ZHAW Institute of Facility Management (IFM) and a research associate at the IFM’s Real Estate Management Competency Group.

Dr Simon Ashworth was recognised for his doctoral thesis on the development of facility management in the building information modelling (BIM) process. The jury described his academic achievement and the practical benefits it yields for the highly topical subject of BIM as outstanding. The dissertation with the title “The Evolution of Facility Management (FM) in the Building Information Modelling Process: An Opportunity to Use Critical Success Factors (CSF) for Optimising Built Assets” was written as part of the IFM’s international doctoral programme in collaboration with Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) and was supervised by the latter’s Dr Matthew Tucker. At the IFM, the teaching and research area of BIM is anchored in the Real Estate Management Competency Group headed by Prof. Carsten Druhmann.

A total of 19 papers covering a wide range of issues were submitted to the GEFMA competition, with their practical relevance being an important quality consideration in awarding the prizes.

German Facility Management Association (GEFMA)

The German Facility Management Association (GEFMA) represents more than 1,000 companies and organisations in the growing facility management service sector in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Since 1989, it has been committed to ensuring a uniform understanding of terms (guidelines, benchmarking) and quality standards (certifications: CAFM software products, sustainability in FM) as well as offering training and further education.

www.gefma.de (website available in German only)