Why Stradigi Is Backing Megaproject of the Year

On 3 November, at Wembley Stadium in London, the Global/UK Project Controls Expo Awards 2026 will name its Global Project Controls Megaproject of the Year.

Stradigi is proud to be the Category Partner for this award.

Sponsorships are easy to announce and harder to explain. So here is why we chose this category, and why it matters to the work we do.

Megaprojects are where strategy is tested hardest

Every organisation has a strategy. Few have to deliver it across thousands of decisions, dozens of contractors, fixed deadlines and full public accountability.

That is the reality of a megaproject. The gap between the plan and its delivery is measured in years and billions. Every weakness in governance, information or ownership is amplified by scale. Small disconnects become schedule risks. Unclear decision rights become cost exposure.

At this scale, strategy either holds or it drifts. There is very little in between.

Our region builds at this scale

Across the UAE and Saudi Arabia, programmes are being delivered at a scale few markets have ever attempted: giga-projects, national capital programmes, cultural destinations, and the energy and industrial infrastructure that underpins them.

This is the environment Stradigi works in every day: portfolio intelligence for government capital programmes, digital delivery on giga-projects, and governance on landmark builds.

From inside that work, one lesson repeats itself. The programmes that hold their course are not the ones with the most data or the most systems. They are the ones where strategy, information and delivery stay connected from the first decision to the last.

Project controls is not reporting. It is governance in motion.

Project controls is still too often treated as a reporting function: the team that explains what happened last month.

On the best programmes, it is something else entirely. It is the discipline that makes cost, schedule, risk, quality and change answer to the same data and the same governance, so leadership can act before an issue becomes a headline.

That is exactly the space Stradigi is built to occupy: the continuity between strategic intent and measurable execution. Backing the award that celebrates this discipline at its highest level was a natural choice.

What this year's finalists prove

This year's shortlist shows what disciplined megaproject delivery looks like in practice:

• The UK's first AGR nuclear station transfer, delivered against a government deadline

• 1.2 million square metres of urban infrastructure in Makkah, completed on time, within budget and with more than 30 million safe man-hours

• A hyperscale data centre campus where all 14 contractual milestones were met and the critical path was recovered by five weeks

• Dam decommissioning programmes that cut costs by up to 30% while strengthening governance and safety

Different sectors, different continents, very different constraints. Yet each one demonstrates the same truth: on a megaproject, performance is designed long before it is reported.

Our congratulations go to every finalist: EDF Energy Generation, KEO International Consultants, Laminar Projects and Sweet Projects, and Vale.

Why recognition matters

Awards do more than celebrate. They make standards visible.

When good practice is recognised publicly, it becomes the benchmark the rest of the industry is measured against. Our region benefits from global benchmarks. The global industry benefits from seeing what is being delivered here. Standing at that intersection is exactly where we want Stradigi to be.

On both sides of the stage

This year, Stradigi is not only a partner. Together with the Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi, we are also finalists for Global Project Controls Transformation of the Year.

Being both sponsor and finalist is a useful reminder. We are not simply advocates for this discipline. We hold ourselves to the same standard we are celebrating.

See you at Wembley

Strategy should not stop at slides. On a megaproject, it cannot afford to.

We look forward to celebrating the teams who prove that every day, at Wembley Stadium on 3 November.

Stradigi. Turning Strategy into Performance.