News
2025
Dec 2025
Olúṣeun Àjàyí is the Winner of the Sarah Sayce Award for Sustainability Research 2025
The Aubrey Barker Fund is pleased to have co-funded the research project “Pricing the Unseen: Integrating Climate Risk into UK Real Estate Investment Strategies under the Thames Estuary 2100 Plan,” led by Olúṣeun Àjàyí, which has been recognised as the Winner of the Sarah Sayce Award for Sustainability Research 2025.
The study addresses an important gap in the real estate sector by developing methodologies that integrate both physical and transition climate risks into asset-level investment and valuation decisions. By combining Climate Value-at-Risk modelling with advanced statistical and geospatial techniques, the research reveals previously “unseen” climate risks embedded in property assets and portfolios.
Supported by the Aubrey Barker Fund alongside the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and the Property Research Trust, the project contributes valuable insights for improving climate-resilient decision-making in real estate.
🔗 Read the full report.
January 2025
New Publication by ABF Grant Award Recipients Marcel Loyd Minka
We are pleased to share that one of our grant award recipients, Marcel Loyd Minka has recently published his research in International Journal of Social Science and Human Research.
The paper explores usefulness and limitation of each Participatory Mapping Data Collection Methods, highlighting their unique contribution to the holistic understanding of the context of Mbalmayo and the mitigation of land conflicts. The ideas provided by this paper can serve as guidelines for researchers and practitioners interested in mitigating land conflicts through participatory mapping approaches.
Read more about the project and the recipient.
ABF is proud to support groundbreaking research and look forward to more impactful contributions.
The full publication is available here: FULL TEXT
2024
November 2024
ABF Partners with GanzAfrica to Support Fellows at Rwandan National Land Authority
ABF are delighted that the initial Fellows funded via their Foundation Partner grant to GanzAfrica are now well underway in their secondments at the Rwandan National Land Authority. They are building their skills to make an important contribution, with a particular focus on boundary corrections, which requires both office and field work. The Fellows are also benefiting from ongoing training.
A further cohort of trainees is in the process of onboarding, and will be following the same structured training process to contribute to their professional development.
We are looking forward to hearing how the Fellows progress through their training.
November 2024
Congratulations to Haniyeh M Karbasi, Winner of the Sarah Sayce Award for Sustainability Research!
Dr. Haniyeh M Karbasi, from the University of Liverpool’s School of Architecture, has been awarded the prestigious Sarah Sayce Award for Sustainability Research. Her groundbreaking study, “Decarbonising the UK’s Hard-to-Treat Homes: A Comparative Life Cycle Carbon Analysis of Retrofit Strategies,” stood out for its comprehensive evaluation of carbon footprints across retrofit methods for older UK homes. The award, established by the Property Research Trust, Aubrey Barker Fund, RICS, and CHOBE, honors research that fosters the practical adoption of sustainable solutions within the property sector. The award was presented by David Sayce, husband of the late Sarah Sayce, at the recent RICS Accredited Providers Conference.
Expressing her gratitude, Dr. Karbasi highlighted the critical role of academic-industry collaboration in achieving net-zero targets and extended thanks to Ecospheric Ltd. for their data support and Ben Riddle for his guidance. Alan Dalgleish, Executive Director of Property Research Trust, praised the report for its relevance and impact, noting its alignment with the UK’s 2050 net-zero goals. The full report is available on the Property Research Trust’s website.
11 June 2024
CASLE and ABF sign MOU
Commonwealth Association of Surveying and Land Economy (CASLE) President Joseph Segun Ajanlekoko and Iain Greenway (Chair of Trustees) Aubrey Barker Fund (ABF) were delighted to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on 11th June. CASLE has been engaged with ABF for many years and the signing of the new MOU was an opportunity to formalise our existing relationship and collaborate on issues of mutual interest such as the continued funding of research and provision of student grants in the land sectors (CASLE was also delighted to see the launch of the new Sarah Sayce Sustainability Research Grant), attendance at meetings and future collaboration.
About CASLE: The Commonwealth Association of Surveying and Land Economy was formed in 1969 as an association of independent professional societies and other bodies, in the field of surveying, and land and marine economy. It aims to foster development of the profession in Commonwealth countries, including appropriate standards of education and training, and to facilitate the transfer of technology with dialogue between member institutions and others, including governments. www.casle.org.