Insight report on sharing engineering data

Data has a crucial role to play in addressing global safety challenges. But to maximise value from data we need to increase access in ways that build trust, conform to legal and ethical frameworks, and deliver value for the public good.

This Insight Report explores how increasing access to data and strengthening data infrastructure across the engineering sector can deliver a range of benefits, not least by increasing safety. It highlights examples of where engineering projects are demonstrating value and discusses some of the barriers to sharing data. It also briefly looks at how other sectors are overcoming these barriers using a range of regulatory and community-driven approaches.

The UK government and Lloyd’s Register Foundation are both funding work that explores how to increase safety, drive change in our utility sectors and change how we build, maintain and monitor the built environment for the public good. We must look for opportunities for these programmes to align and create impact, scale innovation and build data infrastructure – locally and internationally.

The Open Data Institute (ODI) and Lloyd’s Register Foundation’s Manifesto for sharing engineering data for the public good is intended to build a shared vision across engineering programmes and sectors. The manifesto recognises the need for leadership, and sets out recommendations for governments, regulators, industry bodies and the private sector. Sixteen organisations have endorsed the manifesto, including:

• UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE)
• Royal Academy of Engineering
• Mott MacDonald Smart Infrastructure

By taking a purposeful, challenge-led approach, the ODI and Lloyd’s Register Foundation want to help embed best practices and explore new business models and ways of working. This needs to be balanced with investment in strengthening and maintaining the data infrastructure that enables innovation. 

The engineering sector needs to explore and use the full range of data access models, creating new institutions where needed, to help build a data ecosystem where important data is accessible and data is used and shared in trustworthy ways.

Governments, regulators, industry bodies and the private sector must also encourage and enable an open culture, which applies open standards, open access, open source and open innovation to drive innovation for the public good.

If you wish to use and reference the Insight Report on Sharing Engineering Dataude, please include the following DOI: https://doi.org/10.60743/DWBA-SZ33

Example Citation in Harvard Style:

Lloyd's Register Foundation and Open Data Institute (2019) Insight Report on Sharing Engineering Data. Lloyd's Register Foundation. doi: 10.60743/DWBA-SZ33.