DSD: let our engineers work

A leading engineering consultancy has written an open letter to the government urging it to adjust its furlough scheme to enable engineers to contribute on a more flexible basis.

Drive System Design argues that the country is losing hundreds, if not thousands, of work-years of research and development while these engineers are sitting idle

It said: “The government’s furlough support across all industries has been a critical lifeline to help UK businesses maintain their teams during these challenging times. We at Drive System Design, a transportation engineering consultancy, have taken advantage of the scheme as our customer-base delays its programmes.

“Across the UK many thousands of world-class engineers are now unable to contribute to UK plc’s development – hundreds, if not thousands, of work years of R&D will be lost. We believe harnessing the UK’s engineers to develop new innovations at this time will give UK plc a key competitive advantage and much-needed economic boost post Covid-19. We therefore propose a national scheme to ensure such talent is mobilised for the common good of the nation.

“We are asking UK industry and government, including the R&D funding agencies, to join together across all sectors, and quickly develop collaborative programmes that generate world-class IP for the UK, and divert the furlough funding to this enterprise.

There is no additional cost to UK plc, with much greater benefits for all.

“Drive System Design has already approached the government but to make this work we need your support. Please contact us on [email protected] to show your support or offer feedback on the proposal.

“Meanwhile we will continue to contact industry and research leaders so that, collectively, we can make a real contribution to enhancing the UK competitiveness by utilising the best asset we have – our skilled people.”