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Engineering Structural Integrity: A Vital Enabler for Net-Zero - Royce Position Paper Released

Last month saw the official launch of “Engineering Structural Integrity: A Vital Enabler for Net-Zero”, a position paper commissioned by Royce and prepared with the UK Forum for Engineering Structural Integrity (FESI).

The paper summarises the importance of Engineering Structural Integrity (ESI) to the UK economy and the opportunities afforded through a nationwide coordinated approach to ESI technology, research, and training – focussing on its impact on both future design of our major infrastructure, but also the safe management and life extension of critical energy producing plant across the UK.  It highlights the transformations which are taking place in the sector and the key role which the digital age will make, if rapidly embraced by the discipline.

The launch took place in December at the Royal Academy of Engineering to discuss the position paper, as a consultation document and to develop initial plans for taking the recommendations forward involving the appropriate community – likely to include government representatives, research and technology organisations, academia, key industry sectors and regulators.

The UK’s journey to net-zero carbon emissions depends on ESI skills, methods, and activities for reducing whole-life carbon costs and maintaining capabilities for safe operations and readiness. ESI activities seek to minimise the impacts of ageing and to maximise the life of our extensive existing infrastructure to increase the return on investment.

Royce CEO, Prof. David Knowles, says:

“It was great to see a really large and diverse turnout from across the engineering community for the launch of this position paper. The subject of Engineering Structural Integrity spans our most vital infrastructure and industry sectors: energy, transport, health, defence, and manufacturing. It’s now crucial we see a progression in the conversation that this paper has started; Establishing a leadership group which speaks for the future of the community identifies the needs and drives change, highlighting and measuring impact, and demonstrating the cross-cutting imperative of structural integrity in the Government’s industrial strategy.”

You can view the full position paper here, or view the executive summary here.

This spotlight on ESI also links heavily to Royce’s work on the National Materials Innovation Strategy, in particular with one of the six key themes highlighted within the Strategy – “Structural Innovations: Strengthening our infrastructure, built environment and transport systems”.

This theme discusses how civil construction and safety critical structures are fundamental to the UK’s economy and society. It also notes how they can be environmentally draining. There are huge opportunities to decarbonise the sector with more efficient use of materials, longer lifetime materials, or improved energy efficiencies that also support occupant health. Improved standards and compliance processes are also required to create a more agile sector that can rapidly adopt new materials.

Read more about the National Materials Innovation Strategy here.