Chi Onwurah MP gives keynote address at plenary of the National Engineering Policy Centre
The UK’s leading engineering institutions came together on 10 July to discuss some of the most pressing challenges and opportunities facing the UK, as part of the work of the National Engineering Policy Centre.
The National Engineering Policy Centre is an ambitious partnership, led by the Royal Academy of Engineering, between 38 different UK engineering organisations representing 450,000 engineers.
The Centre connects policy makers with critical engineering expertise to inform and respond to policy issues of national importance, giving policymakers a route to advice from across the whole profession, and the profession a unified voice on shared challenges. The Academy’s ambition is that the Centre will be a trusted partner for policy makers, enabling them to access excellent engineering expertise, for social and economic benefit.
Shadow Industrial Strategy Minister Chi Onwurah MP gave the keynote address at a plenary session of the Centre held at the Royal Aeronautical Society. During her speech Chi championed the important role of engineering, highlighting the potential for it to change people’s lives for the better. She also praised the ambitions of the Centre, and said:
‘All engineering takes place within a political, regulatory and ethical framework. That’s why it’s so important that the worlds of engineering and politics come together constructively. I would like to see the National Engineering Policy Centre and the voice of engineering on a par with the other institutions that politicians go to for expert insight. It’s up to you in this room to set out engineering policy options in a way that politicians and policymakers can engage with.’
Delegates then participated in interactive sessions to inform the Centre’s work around three current priority areas:
- Business Investment in R&D: an exploration of the factors that influence engineering businesses’ decisions to invest in R&D in the UK, to find practical ways to remove the barriers to increased business investment. The session focused on how to better support engineering companies to innovate and transform their ideas into products to market.
- Digital skills, engineers and the fourth industrial revolution: a project to identify the digital skills needs of engineers across different disciplines encompassing both new technologies and existing systems.
- Safety and ethics of autonomous systems: a project looking at how the UK might regulate these new technologies in a way that encourages innovation while ensuring safe and ethical use. The session discussed implications for the engineering profession.
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Note to Editors:
National Engineering Policy Centre
The National Engineering Policy Centre is an ambitious partnership, led by the Royal Academy of Engineering, between 38 different UK engineering organisations representing 450,000 engineers.
The Centre connects policy makers with critical engineering expertise to inform and respond to policy issues of national importance, giving policymakers a route to advice from across the whole profession, and the profession a unified voice on shared challenges. Our ambition is that the Centre will be a trusted partner for policy makers, enabling them to access excellent engineering expertise, for social and economic benefit.
The Centre was inaugurated in January 2019 at the Royal Academy of Engineering in the presence of John Manzoni, Permanent Secretary for the Cabinet Office and Chief Executive of the Civil Service, Bernadette Kelly, Permanent Secretary at the Department for Transport, Sana Kharegani, Deputy Director, Head of Office for Artificial Intelligence, Joint unit: DCMS and BEIS, and Dr David Cleevely CBE FREng, Founding Director, Centre for Science and Policy, University of Cambridge.
Find out more about more about the Centre partners here:
- Royal Academy of Engineering
- EngineeringUK
- The Engineering Council
- BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT
- British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing (BINDT)
- Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE)
- Chartered Institution of Highways & Transportation (CIHT)
- Chartered Institute of Plumbing and Heating Engineering (CIPHE)
- Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM)
- Energy Institute (EI)
- Institution of Agricultural Engineers (IAgrE)
- Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE)
- Institute of Cast Metals Engineers (ICME)
- Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE)
- Institution of Engineering Designers (IED)
- Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET)
- Institution of Fire Engineers (IFE)
- Institution of Gas Engineers and Managers (IGEM)
- Institute of Highway Engineers (IHE)
- Institute of Healthcare Engineering and Estate Management (IHEEM)
- Institution of Lighting Professionals (ILP)
- Institute of Marine Engineering, Science & Technology (IMarEST)
- Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE)
- Institute of Measurement and Control (InstMC)
- Institution of Royal Engineers (InstRE)
- Institute of Acoustics (IOA)
- Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3)
- Institute of Physics (IOP)
- Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM)
- Institution of Railway Signal Engineers (IRSE)
- Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE)
- Institute of Water
- Permanent Way Institution (PWI)
- Nuclear Institute (NI)
- Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS)
- Royal Institution of Naval Architects (RINA)
- Society of Environmental Engineers (SEE)
- The Society of Operations Engineers (SOE)
- The Welding Institute
Royal Academy of Engineering
As the UK’s national academy for engineering and technology, we bring together the most successful and talented engineers from academia and business – our Fellows – to advance and promote excellence in engineering for the benefit of society.
We harness their experience and expertise to provide independent advice to government, to deliver programmes that help exceptional engineering researchers and innovators realise their potential, to engage the public with engineering and to provide leadership for the profession.
We have three strategic priorities:
- Make the UK the leading nation for engineering innovation and businesses
- Address the engineering skills and diversity challenge
- Position engineering at the heart of society
We bring together engineers, policy makers, entrepreneurs, business leaders, academics, educators and the public in pursuit of these goals.
Engineering is a global profession, so we work with partners across the world to advance engineering’s contribution to society on an international, as well as a national scale.
For more information please contact:
Marine Shah, Senior Manager Policy Centre
Tel. 020 7766 0796; email: [email protected]
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