Launched last night at the British Embassy in Berlin – where the institution also signed a partnership agreement with Germany’s Verein Deutscher Ingenieure, the largest engineering association in Western Europe – “The Future of International Collaborative Engineering - A Manifesto” explores the nature of engineering collaboration and the impact of Covid-19.
Despite a seemingly constant stream of crises that would benefit from international partnerships, the report highlights a global trend towards isolationism and nationalism. Examples include political developments in the US, Russia’s increasing isolation on the world stage – even before the invasion of Ukraine – and the emergence of popular far-right parties in countries across Europe.
In the UK, politicians and policy makers hoping to work with international partners face significant hurdles caused by Brexit. Some diplomatic avenues and partnerships have closed, as have some engineering projects. The UK left the European Galileo GPS alternative, for example, despite spending more than a billion pounds and contributing extensive work to the satellite system.
Brexit “has brought its challenges, in terms of enabling the UK to participate in international collaboration that we previously had. We managed to maintain some of those collaborations, but there are some that are not as effective,” says report author and IMechE fellow Dr Tim Fox to Professional Engineering.
Barriers to collaboration, both in the UK and around the world, are particularly concerning given the pressing nature of 21st century challenges, says Dr Fox. Climate change, biodiversity loss, future pandemics – “these are the sort of problems that have a global reach,” he says. “To try and tackle them without international collaboration, across as many nations as possible, would be very, very difficult, if not impossible. The trend towards isolationism and nationalism makes it much harder to achieve a successful solution.”
Removing barriers
Thankfully, the Covid-19 pandemic has given some examples of fruitful collaboration under extreme pressure. The report features three case studies: Fujifilm’s support of vaccine manufacturing; the University College London (UCL) Ventura project to develop a new breathing aid; and Brunel University’s online work with engineering students.
Each of the projects demonstrated previously unexplored ways of collaborating, the report says, achieving high standards of engineering and creating a new approach to innovation.
Engineers have a “unique role” in integrating scientific, social and economic knowledge into ‘holistic’ approaches, the report says, and international collaboration maximises their capability.
“The key benefit is access to technology, approaches, systems that are particularly high in one country but not in another,” says Dr Fox.
The report calls on governments to develop and implement strategies to drive greater international collaboration, supporting countries which do not have the resources to design and implement the systems level programmes needed to solve global challenges.
“The role of governments is to create an environment that engenders, nurtures and encourages systems collaboration… removing barriers to collaboration, participating at a high level in collaborative structures and encouraging international engagement,” says Dr Fox. “There is also a role in actively encouraging academia and business to collaborate.”
Engineering solutions to global challenges must be “culturally sensitive” to be as beneficial as possible, he adds. Managers must have the right skills to lead teams working across different cultures.
“From a broad social context, each country has a different culture and therefore a different way of implementing solutions, so if we’re going to have global solutions we need to understand how they’ll be used and implemented locally,” says Dr Fox.
The manifesto recommends:
1. “Governments develop and implement international collaboration strategies that drive industrial, business and public sector collaboration to meet the 21st century’s major global challenges.
2. “The professional bodies for engineering need to lead the preparation of engineers at all stages in their professional journey to meet the challenges of effective and efficient international collaboration.
3. “Industry, business, and the public sector must recognise the importance of international collaboration in tackling major global issues and empower managers to support their engineers in meeting the challenges of collaborative working.”
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Content published by Professional Engineering does not necessarily represent the views of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.