This article highlights some of the opportunities and challenges that collaboration between higher education institutions (HEIs) can bring to the development of sustainable community-university partnerships. In particular, it explores the potential for universities to collaborate on building effective engagement mechanisms (such as helpdesks, ‘hub and spoke’ contact models, and research groups to review ideas for activities) that will support an ongoing flow of new projects and partnerships over time. It draws on evidence gathered from the evaluation and coordination of the South East Coastal Communities (SECC) program, an almost unique experiment in collaboration between English universities. In an ‘age of austerity’, opportunities to reduce costs without damaging core services are of particular interest to public funding bodies. The article suggests that collaboration between universities may be an efficient and effective way of engaging with local communities, but that it is not cost-free, and high-level strategic buy-in within HEIs is required if community-university partnerships are to thrive in the current higher education funding environment. The article also suggests that there may be a geographic dimension to effective collaboration between universities in both community-university partnership work and the mechanisms that support community engagement. Inter-university collaboration across the whole region covered by the SECC program has been much weaker than collaboration at a subregional level and within ‘city-regions’ in particular. This raises a key question: does the natural geography for effective collaboration between universities need to reflect, at least in part, the geographies of communities themselves, in terms of lived experiences and/or community representation? Such a debate has interesting and timely parallels in the United Kingdom, where the new coalition government is bringing about a fundamental shift in the geography of public administration, with the aim of both increasing democratic accountability and improving the spatial fit between policy interventions and economic and social ‘reality’. Keywords Community-university partnership, collaboration between universities, engagement mechanisms, sustainability, geographic communities

As capital projects execution is increasingly transformed through digitalisation, there are further opportunities to optimise the efficiencies and effectiveness of Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) phase maintenance, and integrity management programme development. This paper presents a model for the development of lifecycle maintenance and integrity management programmes during the EPC phase. The approach comprises a fully integrated solution for all required work scopes. This model is embedded within an asset management build platform and has been designed to encourage collaborative working and maximise efficiencies during execution. The approach enables the provision of clear information to the EPC project team highlighting the critical path data requirements and schedules. This provides enhanced definition of Computerised Maintenance Management System (CMMS) build processes, smoother project management, improved consistency and accuracy of the asset register, hierarchy build, materials, inventory content and linkages. Requirements for manual data scraping from engineering drawings, datasheets and vendor documentation have been substantially reduced. Instead, the approach maximises opportunities to standardise and digitise much of data handling and capture required for successful programme development. The model incorporates simple, robust rulesets for lifecycle maintenance and integrity management strategies, which consider aspects such as: class code, equipment sub-categories, materials, and operating context. This has resulted in consistent, standardised programme development and implementation, while accounting for owner/operator specifications and requirements. Furthermore, the data deliverables and outputs can be used as a basis for CMMS management of change during the subsequent operating phase.

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His success depends on ability to compromise and reason‐and to avoid sticking out his neck.