Failure Modes of Engineering (FeME)

Fresh perspectives 

To challenge this, a new collaborative project involving academics at the University of Edinburgh, the University of Glasgow and Heriot-Watt University spanning expertise in science, engineering, systems, education, and psychology is creating a network for future inclusivity, sustainability, and global impact. 

Dr Encarni Medina-Lopez, Senior Lecturer in Ocean Observation at the University of Edinburgh, is PI on the project. “Climate change is the greatest challenge we face,” she says, “but as an engineer, I know that technical solutions alone won’t solve the problems ahead”. The strength of this project lies in the genuinely interdisciplinary nature of its team, which enables them to analyse the disparity between climate change impacts on different communities from a diverse and complementary range of perspectives. It also views the problem through an unusual lens: failure. 

Failure modes for future wins 

In engineering, it’s essential to consider not only how a process works, but also how it might fail. Engineers do this by identifying “failure modes” - specific ways in which a design might fail to perform its intended function - and developing strategies to prevent or mitigate them. The interdisciplinary project team, called Failure Modes of Engineering (FeME) is collaborating with the international research community and industry to analyse the ways in which contemporary engineering approaches lack preparation to face the challenges posed by climate change, and ideate how to meet these challenges in a more equitable way.  

Edinburgh Innovations (EI), the University of Edinburgh’s commercialisation service, has supported the FeME team by building the network for the project, facilitating workshops not only with academics but with stakeholders across industry, the public sector and third sector, which have informed the project’s scope and direction. 

A new vision 

FeME’s radical strategy for tackling climate change involves exploring the benefits that social science methods can bring to engineering research. FeME is incorporating feminist techniques from social sciences such as storytelling and participatory approaches in its methodology, which is organised around six key characteristics that have been identified as essential for the “Future Engineering” FeME aims to nurture: 

EI supported the FeME team to apply for funding to support this work, both in drafting the application and by securing crucial letters of support from a range of industry partners. In 2025, the project was successfully awarded £2.2 million over three years by EPSRC as part of the funding council’s Tomorrow’s Engineering Research Challenges (TERC) Network Plus initiative. The money is helping to drive 25 activities within 11 thematic areas that include training, seed funding, networking, award programs, and design challenges that will bring engineers from the Global North and the Global South together. Almost half of FeME’s funding is flexible so the team can adapt to the needs of communities as its work continues.