To make great policies we need a range of different approaches for understanding problems and designing solutions. We need economists, scientists, technologists, and we need engineers too. All of these disciplines look at the world differently, analyse it differently, see different patterns, and come to different answers. No one approach is right on its own and all are needed in policy making and government.
But now more than ever, we need engineers in the policy making process. Climate, environmental and technological change combined with population pressures call for engineering skills: careful trade-offs, nuanced interventions into complex systems, and realistic deliverable solutions. This year alone the UK is hosting COP26 and we are going through a significant shift in our dependency on digital, data and communication technologies.
In light of this, a new network - Engineering in Policy - is going to be launched. It will explore and promote the role engineers, and engineering advice, experience and approaches, play in government and policy making.
Engineering in Policy will be open to all who have an interest in these topics. This includes civil, public and crown servants, those working in industry and the Third Sector, as well as academics. It also includes those in engineering roles, those with an engineering background and those working with or using engineering advice. This breadth of reach will allow the network to explore all the capacities in which engineering and engineers shape policy.
The network will create a community who can benefit from each other’s experience, collect and share knowledge, raise awareness of the role engineering expertise can play, and support change where it is needed.
Engineering in Policy is supported by the Government Science and Engineering Profession and when we launch we will welcome GSE members to join! Going forward, we plan to work closely with the GSE Profession to ensure GSE members have access to our opportunities and events with wider government, academia and industry, and to create additional events specifically for GSE members.
Before launching this network we want to hear from the community that we hope it will serve. Please help us to shape this network by answering four short questions here (2 minutes to complete).
We plan to launch soon, and we will publish launch plans and joining instructions on this website. Thank you for your ongoing support and we look forward to welcoming you to the new network.
Do you have an opportunity to share?
If you would like to publicise an opportunity in the next GSE Opportunities blog post, please send a summary of no more than 100 words with contact details or a link and a closing date to: gse@go-science.gov.uk
2 comments
Comment by Mark Harvey posted on
Dear Eleanor, just about to answer the four questions above. Also just written to GSE. I am very keen to connect our FCDO infrastructure advisers and engineers with the GSE and the EPN.
Comment by Mark Harvey posted on
Apologies - I hit send too soon ! I am currently Head of Profession (Infrastructure & Urban) in FCDO. One of about 50 advisers in FCDO, also with a small group of colleagues with engineering backgrounds.