A Collaborative Engineering Design Research Model—An Aerospace Manufacturer’s View

Bringing new technologies into products and out to a market require continuously improved methods, tools, and skills in engineering design. Following, a brief introduction into challenges for an engine component manufacturer and how engineering design research play an integral role, the aim of this chapter is to discuss experiences from university and industry collaborative research. The university and industry collaborative research is a necessary means to improve practice in industry, and the experience narrated through the cases presented will give some basis as to why this has been, and continues to be the case. Four collaborative research modes are introduced where after three cases from GKN Aerospace Engine Systems as are presented where design research have made impact in several ways. Common to all cases is the long term and deep relation between the academic research team and the company’s key stakeholders, who have been decisive to efficiently transit research results into practice. A common understanding of the challenges while ensuring mutual benefit in research initiatives is considered a key pre-requisite for successful introduction of Engineering Design research results. A main argument is that for adoption of research results that impacts the mindset of people—which is often the case of engineering design research—the research must be seen from a change management perspective. The success factors and learning’s are summarized into key factors for enabling an effective and efficient collaborative design research.