The undoubted highlight of the Academy 2021 programme was the visits to Belfast and Dublin of the Presidents of the IAE and RAE and their audience with the President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins. One of the agreed actions was to ensure a lasting legacy from this visit and on 17^th May 2022 both Academies signed a joint Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which provides a framework under which both parties can work together to develop and implement an action-focussed work programme. Our shared aspiration is to build better links and to better align relevant areas of their work with the objective of having a meaningful influence on the economic development and public wellbeing of these islands. Meetings took place in July 2022 in London to scope out joint activities and in particular discuss the work of the National Engineering Policy Centre(NEPC) and how best to focus on innovation, energy and climate change which are at the top of both Academies policy agendas.