Comment & Analysis
Engineering faces huge questions as a result of the referendum, but change driven by climate policy and technology will also likely shape events in the next 12 months.
We asked our policy experts to look forward to 2017, with radioactive waste disposal, air quality and the impact of automation among the many subjects we’ll be looking at in the year ahead.
Dr Jenifer Baxter – Energy and Environment
As we look forward into 2017 there are some key Government activities that will begin to play out and have a significant impact on the role of engineers across sectors. The first is the decision to leave the EU and the second the development of a UK industrial strategy. For energy engineers, further developments in the nuclear sector will impact them.
We will be addressing these three main issues, particularly through understanding how the use of the circular economy and engineering can support an industrial strategy and our engineering industry post EU membership.
This will include decarbonising heat, and the role of combined heat, power and energy from waste.
For the nuclear sector the focus will be on understanding:
- The whole life cycle
- How skills and supply chains are developed
- How multi-generational schemes can support economic growth in the regions
- How we manage and dispose of radioactive wastes.
Philippa Oldham CEng MIMechE – Manufacturing and Transport
The year will start with the launch of our Increasing Capacity: Putting Britain’s Railways Back on Track Report. This report builds on four case studies and offers solutions both in terms of technology and strategic improvements that could optimise our network.
Air quality will be another area of focus. With many European cities looking to ban diesel in the foreseeable future, more evidence and clarity is needed within the debate to ensure that this potential knee jerk reaction does not harm the businesses based within these cities.
More detail will start to emerge on what a post Brexit UK will look like. We will be looking closely at how businesses can maximise efficiency and productivity in these potentially unstable times, with a particular focus on the food and drink sector.
This will include looking at the challenges they face with the possible loss of free movement and the opportunity that this may bring for the sector to increase its automation and transparency throughout their supply chain from farm to fork.
Dr Helen Meese CEng MIMechE – Healthcare
Next year will be tough for the healthcare sector, particularly the NHS, as the pressures of greater cost savings, reduced funding and growing patient demands increase - not to mention the implementation of the Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STPs) which will fundamentally change NHS working practices.
In light of this, our campaign to install a chief engineer in every NHS trust has become even more crucial, especially in addressing improved patient care through technology innovation and procurement.
To highlight our campaign we will be focusing on social care and how technology can keep us healthier for longer.
We will be engaging with GPs to identify the ‘med tech’ needed for future primary care, as well as working with experts to define the ‘healthy home’ which could keep people fit and independent into old age. We will also be looking at medical robotics and how it’s transforming surgical procedures and patient outcomes.
Peter Finegold – Education
While still at the Department for Education, though immediately after the EU Referendum, Minister for Exiting the European Union, Robin Walker said that ‘skills policy’ would now have much higher priority.
In October, the Institution played its part in authoring the Royal Academy of Engineering report Engineering a Future Outside the EU, which emphasised how the Government and industry should seize the opportunity to commit to an industrial strategy, including addressing the UK’s engineering skills crisis.
In 2017 our education and skills policy work will reflect this - shifting focus to how best to fill gaps in essential skilled engineering occupations. We hope to provide transparency on where the skills shortages lie and actions that are needed to meet all related policy areas, including Brexit, apprenticeships, technical education, regional devolving of skills and the anticipated industrial strategy.