CDIO. CAN WE CONTINUE THE WAY WE ARE?

In 10 workshops all over the globe, about 150 CDIO community members discussed the status quo, explored the fit between the current CDIO organisation and the changing environment, set goals, and substantiated arguments for a roadmap for CDIO 2030. They formulated new mission and vision statements for the CDIO Initiative and conceived ideas for the advancement of the CDIO framework. The goal setting and strategic thinking has culminated in a proposal for more structure to consolidate the community of practice with durable engagement and stronger involvement in orchestrated experimentation and sharing of practice. A broad consensus amongst the members exists about the urgency and importance to advance the CDIO framework beyond updating the syllabus or growing in numbers. Many members expect guidance for new developments in engineering education. The lack in evidence of the impact of the CDIO Initiative is an important issue. A major concern is the risk that the holistic nature of the CDIO framework is diluted. Whilst the landscape of engineering education has changed significantly over the past 20 years, in the outside world CDIO has almost become a synonym for conceive-design-build-operate projects. The initiative is at a crossroads of proceeding as before, or turning the tide and lead change in the next decades. The paper addresses the status quo as perceived by the members, the shift in engagement by newcomers and retirements from the community and the reformulation of the mission and vision statements for the CDIO Initiative. The paper gives an inventory of breakthroughs that are necessary to move CDIO back into a leadership position of innovative engineering education, if that is what we want.