Safer Complex Systems case studies

The Safer Complex Systems community identified a lack of case studies, which are a useful tool for education and professional development, on complex systems. To address this gap, Engineering X commissioned the development of 18 unique case studies by awardees from across academia and industry. These were developed over a period of 18 months by the awardees in collaboration with their own networks and under the mentorship of our expert case study steering committee, chaired by Professor Brian Collins CB FREng.

The case studies cover a wide variety of complex system successes and failures, past and present, around the world. In examining these events, these case studies provide insights into how the design, construction, operation, management and governance of complex systems may result in safe or unsafe outcomes. Beyond informing future activities under our programme, we hope that the cross-cutting factors and lessons learned brought to light by these case studies will help to create safer complex systems globally.

The Safer Complex Systems Case Study Collection, downloadable below, contains all 18 case studies, along with commentary on the background motivation to and lessons learned from the case studies.

Download all case studies 

Case studies

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Long form case studies

The papers below contain extended research into topics covered by some of the case studies above.