Dr Omoleye Ojuri

Omoleye is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Civil Engineering and Built Environment, Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU). Prior to joining LJMU, she worked as a Lecturer in the Department of Quantity Surveying at the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria. Omoleye is an Honorary Lecturer at the University College London’s Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction.


Research summary
Dr Omoleye Ojuri's current interests span understanding social value creation in infrastructure projects, social value co-creation and measuring social value. Omoleye's research identifies with the UN Sustainable Development Goals Numbers 3, 6, 10 11, and 13 - Good health and well-being, Clean water and sanitation, reduced inequalities, sustainable cities and communities, Climate action, respectively. The research work tends to provide and enhance novelty capabilities by learning from the best practices to improve government policy targets in the creation of emergent innovation in the delivery of socially and technically successful climate-neutral infrastructure projects.

Understanding social value creation in infrastructure projects
The need to create social value during the delivery of infrastructure projects is growing in importance. However, the initial expectations of stakeholders at the outset of projects are not achieved once the project is delivered. Since the introduction of the UK’s Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012, organisations wishing to secure public sector engineering, infrastructure, and construction projects need to demonstrate their social value credentials. The act places a legal obligation on public sector bodies to consider the social value each tenderer offers and ensure this consideration is given an appropriate weighting in the comparison and analysis of returned tenders. Despite infrastructure having the potential to play a transformative role in the creation of social value, current outcomes are arguably not as effective as they could be. However, as there is no widely accepted succinct definition of what the term social value relates to, each public sector client, construction, and engineering company may differ in their interpretation. Thus, understanding how social value is created and delivered in infrastructure projects represents an interesting area to explore. This understanding should help in the creation of socially effective delivery of social needs through infrastructure development.

Social value co-creation
Social value co-creation is the engagement of various stakeholders in a service system to the evolution of social value for all the stakeholders involved in the value co-creating system. This system occurs when institutions are put in place to ensure that resources and contributions of stakeholders are combined to generate improvements in the lives of individuals, groups or communities, or society. Co-creation of social value has emerged as the most recent and dynamic phenomenon in management and built environment literature, thus, making it timely for exploration as a business model for infrastructure project delivery.

Measuring social value
Investigating the social benefits and impacts of infrastructure on society remains a challenging task. This is partly because social value is an ever-changing space that continues to develop to reflect the social, environmental, and economic world that we live in. There are several methodologies adopted to capture the impact of infrastructure on project end-user profiles such as health, job, skill, and education among others. However, it is vital to increase the robustness and accuracy of the forecasts and estimates.

Omoleye is motivated by two interrelated questions. What does the inclusion of social value creation in infrastructure development tell us about sustainable infrastructure? How should social value creation be designed at different stages of infrastructure development to promote climate-neutral sustainable infrastructure?


Teaching Summary
Dr Omoleye Ojuri teaches Construction Procurement, Management Theory and Practice, Construction Contracts and Clients, Measurement and Costing, Introduction to Law. At present, she primarily lectures Measurement and Costing (4212BEUG), Health and Safety in the Built Environment (4342BEUG) and Construction Procurement (5210BEUG). She has supervised over 100 Bachelors and Masters in these and related areas.

Biography
Omoleye is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She is a scholar of the Joint Japan World Bank Graduate Scholarship Programme ($53,754) and a Fellow of the prestigious Schlumberger Foundation Faculty for the Future ($200,000). She is a reviewer for several academic journals. She was the Guest Lecturer on "The Built Environment Landscape Frontiers in the 21st century", during the 2019 Directorate of Physical Planning Annual Lecture at the Federal Polytechnic, Ile-Oluji, Nigeria.

Omoleye is the author of "Breaking stiff Boundaries" and the Founder/Coordinator of "Fullexcellence Foundation for Women (FFfW)" - www.fullexcellence.org

Degrees

University College London, UK, PhD (Construction Project Management)
Yokohama National University, Japan, Master of Philosophy (Infrastructure Management)
Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Nigeria, Bachelor of Science (Quantity Surveying)

Certifications

Chartered member, Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors, NIQS
Chartered member, Quantity Surveyors Registration Board of Nigeria, QSRBN
Member, Project Management International, PMI
Member, Association of Women Quantity Surveyors of Nigeria, AWQSN
Member, Organisation of Women Scientists in Developing Countries, OWSD
Fellow, Higher Education Academy, FHEA