The Government should allow furloughed engineers to carry out R&D (research and design) on collaborative programmes that could generate world-class Intellectual Property for the benefit of the UK.
We believe that under the current job retention scheme, thousands of work years worth of R&D will be lost. By allowing 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. Allowing furloughed engineers to carry out this work will result in much greater benefit to the UK at no additional cost to the tax payer.