Analysis of data from 115 geographies highlights an increase in the safety gap between low- to middle-income countries and high-income countries.

The Global Engineering Capability Review (GECR) 2025, published by Engineering X’s Skills for Safety programme in partnership with its founders, the Royal Academy of Engineering and Lloyd’s Register Foundation, is said to provide a new framework for understanding engineering capability around the world. 

The innovative data analysis tool allows governments to develop targeted interventions to help improve national engineering capabilities and unlock regional safety and economic development. 

The Review shows that while nearly all geographies can do more to improve safety, countries with low engineering capacity, largely low- and middle-income countries, are most at risk of poor safety outcomes. It indicates an urgent need for investment in engineering capacity alongside the push for development in such regions, including sub-Saharan Africa, to reduce the risks of harm. Three areas were found to have the largest capacity gaps across the region, in line with global findings: investment in equipment, investment in product testing, and governance.  

The findings can also be reviewed with the use of an interactive dashboard that allows communities, governments, civil servants, industry, investors, academics and working engineers to review where interventions could be most effective to address gaps and increased risk of harm, or how a specific region compares to local and global benchmarks. 

“Our ultimate goal was to provide a tool to enable key stakeholders to act independently, so we hope local policymakers will use our data to develop effective, targeted interventions, rooted in local context,” said Lloyd’s Register Foundation director: skills and education and Engineering X Skills for Safety board member Dr Tim Slingsby.

Gaps identified in the GECR 2025 will help inform a series of global workshops led by Engineering X and Lloyd’s Register Foundation, centred on the socio-economic opportunities generated by improved engineering capability. In addition, funding may be available to organisations proposing initiatives aligned with the Foundation’s strategy.