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What should nima’s targets be?
1 August 2025
Nima should focus on working with other industry bodies and the government, improving information management practices and up-skilling information management across the built and managed environment sector. Those are the three most popular priorities in the first nima member poll.
Since launching its membership drive in May, nima has attracted 135 digital construction professionals as members [DC+ expects this number grow rapidly in the coming months - ed.]. One of the benefits of membership is to have a say in nima's direction.
The members were polled in July on eight areas of focus for nima. The three most popular were:
- Work with other industry bodies to improve information management practices – identify and work with relevant membership and trade organisations in the built and managed environment, with nima seen as the coordinating hub of information management, complementing professionals or other bodies.
- Lobby government about data and information management – identify and work with relevant government departments and other agencies to ensure data-centric approaches to information management, which can then be incorporated into policy initiatives relating to the built and managed environment.
- Up-skill the sector generally regarding information management – recognising that effective information management is mostly about people and processes, not technology, nima should identify and contribute to the development of the most appropriate ways to improve the sector’s understanding of, and competencies in, information management.
Nima already has working relationships with around 30 professional institutions, trade bodies and other organisations. Industry engagement and up-skilling are also key objectives of the Information Management Initiative (IMI) that nima launched with the Construction Leadership Council in November 2024.
Other priorities
The other five priorities nima put to its membership in order of popularity were:
- Support industry information management practitioners – develop, maintain and improve resources that will help new and existing practitioners in the adoption of good information management practices across the built and managed environment, and across the lifecycles of its assets.
- Address the sector’s data-sharing infrastructure – contribute to the development of common, consistent, open and sector-wide approaches to data-sharing across the built and managed environment, and throughout the assets' lifecycle.
- Promote the IMI – promote sector-wide awareness and understanding of the IMI and significantly expand current levels of active involvement, including the development of internal information management mandates, by all types of organisations in the built and managed environment.
- Provide additional IMI Framework guidance – expand the IMI Framework (previously the UK BIM Framework) to include additional supporting resources that help individuals and organisations deliver against their internal information management mandates, and sustain new approaches into the future.
- Gain investment for IMI projects – clarify the scope and levels of investment needed to deliver IMI projects, and secure sufficient financial and intellectual investment by consortia to create project deliverables within one to three years.
Membership and leadership aligned
Nima chair Dr Anne Kemp OBE said: “It is so important that our members feel that they have a say in what we focus on as nima. We are already gearing up to act on the feedback, and by useful coincidence, the priorities highlighted fit neatly with recruitment of two of our new Vice Chairs in the areas of stakeholder engagement and up-skilling.
“I am looking forward to continued growth in our memberships and to continuing that conversation as we progress, with members helping steer the way forward.”
The next nima quarterly forum will be held on 4 September. The annual nima virtual conference is scheduled for 6 November: further details are expected this month.
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