Input for the 2015 FM research and action agenda

One of the aims of EFMC 2009 is to develop a research agenda and action plan for Facility Management (FM) with a time horizon of at least five to seven years. In order to collect input for this agenda, the Delft Center for People and Buildings organised a number of round-table discussions with representatives of professional FM journals, FM professionals and academics. A wide variety of subjects were covered. Some of these subjects came up in almost all sessions, such as sustainability, the changing role of facility managers and facility management (from operational to strategic, from cost efficiency to added value), corporate social responsibility and FM education. Furthermore all papers that have been submitted to the EFMC 2009 research symposium have been analysed with regard to the research questions and proposed next steps. The papers show that we share one world with different problems that need joint efforts to deliver sustainable (durable) solutions. The present paper discusses a number of shared problems and challenges against the background of the key themes of EFFM 2008 - 2009. The findings from the round table discussions and the cross paper analysis have been translated in building blocks for the 2015 FM Research and Action Agenda. This agenda challenges the FM community to integrate knowledge from different research programs and projects and to get more synergy out of it, with as a final aim to contribute to sustainable solutions of societal problems, to build up a sound “evidence based” FM body of knowledge and to work on new research methods.