The Future of International Collaborative Engineering

Exploring the collaborative tradition in engineering; how engineers have, and do, collaborate; what the key challenges to international collaboration are and how to address them.

This policy paper from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers considers the future of collaboration within the engineering profession, specifically international collaboration in a post-pandemic world.

Tackling the world’s most pressing global challenges will require increased international engineering collaboration across many disciplines to develop sustainable solutions.

Solving global challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss and future pandemics will require worldwide collaboration in contradiction of the current trends towards nationalism and isolationism.

This report explores the nature of engineering collaboration, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and considers how engineers have a unique role in integrating scientific, social and economic knowledge into holistic approaches.

It features three case studies on collaboration during the pandemic- FujiFilm’s work to support vaccine manufacture, the University College London (UCL) – Venture project to develop a new breathing aid for COVID-19 patients and the experience at Brunel University of working with engineering students exclusively online.

In all three cases, the legacy is a previously unthinkable way of collaborating to achieve high standards of engineering and creating a new approach to innovation which has yielded impressive results.