RAEng and Lloyd’s Register launch £15m safety initiative and call on others to join

THE UK’s Royal Academy of Engineering and Lloyd’s Register Foundation have announced a £15m (US$19.5m) partnership seeking to advance engineering safety around the world.

The five-year programme is set to allocate £15m in funding to create communities of best practice, build global research collaborations, and develop practical and accessible outputs for the engineering profession and affected communities.

The three areas of focus are safer complex industrial and engineered systems; enhanced safety in decommissioning and end of engineering life; and developing engineering skills where they are needed most. The partners say that the initiative may produce new standards, codes of conduct, or even new approaches to engineering education.

Dame Ann Dowling, president of the Royal Academy of Engineering, said: “We hope to see engineering companies, universities, research centres and professional institutions in the UK and from around the world joining us to identify where and how the most impactful interventions can be made.”

Lloyd’s Register, a professional engineering services group, launched its foundation in 2012 to advance engineering-related education and research. CEO of the foundation Richard Clegg said: “The first programmes recognise that there are new and emerging safety challenges, which we can make a distinctive contribution towards addressing. This will be achieved via better understanding of complex engineered systems and the safer decommissioning of infrastructures, products and services. We also see that there are skills challenges that limit the capability of developing economies to select, license and operate new critical infrastructure.

“We look forward to being joined by other partners who can work with us towards a safer and more sustainable world.”

Trish Kerin, chair of the IChemE Safety Centre, responded to the news, saying: “The IChemE Safety Centre welcomes this partnership as a great step to help advance process safety worldwide. As a leader in process safety, we look forward to engaging with the Royal Academy of Engineering and Lloyd’s Register Foundation as we continue to drive safety improvements across industry.”