The construction industry is going through hard times in many countries. This is certainly true in the Netherlands as all big Dutch contractors face disappointing results. The market policies of major (public) clients are held accountable by politics and the market for this situation. However, for the operation and development of transport infrastructure networks, a sustainable construction industry is essential. But how do public infrastructure network managers involve this industry in their network management? And does this involvement lead to the development of a sustainable construction market? In this paper we argue that the market policies of public transport infrastructure administrators (still) favour price competition and risk opportunism, thereby inhibiting a healthy development of the industry. This paper describes the reciprocal relation between public infrastructure network administrators (in their role as manager of the network and client) and the construction industry as a supplier of infrastructure hardware and services. It reveals that a sustainable development of the construction industry can only be achieved through the development of a value awarding mechanism, explicitly linked to the functions of the infrastructure network instead of to intermittent one-off projects. The paper will give practical recommendations for (public) infrastructure network administrators how to stimulate the creation of added network value through sustainable market involvement.@en

The Dutch 4TU Centre for Engineering Education (CEE)1 has the mission to inspire, stimulate, support and disseminate effective and high-quality Engineering Education through research and the application of evidence-based innovations. It realises these goals by engineering education research, innovation and inspiration. Since 2 years the 4TU Centre for Engineering Education has joined forces with the departments of architecture and the built environment (A&BE) at the universities of technology in the Netherlands, and particularly at Delft University of Technology. In Delft, the ambition has been set to develop a portfolio for research-on-education innovation. The Delft A&BE faculty has chosen to create a research agenda for engineering education research, in which evidence-based working is becoming a standard practice.2 It aims to support and inspire teachers to innovate, monitor and systematically evaluate and improve their education. The 4TU CEE wholeheartedly supports this endeavour as it highly relates to the CEE mission of capacity building of engineering educators in higher education. Moreover, it integrates the three CEE primary pillars: engineering education research, innovation and dissemination. The A&BE faculty has become an experimental lab for sustainable change in engineering education with possibly long term impact on the quality of the (process of) educational innovation.@en