ABSTRACTIntegrated Product Development frequently involves multi‐company and multi‐national teams, using heterogeneous design tool sets. Systems Engineering (SE) must be able to operate in this environment. SEDRES is producing a neutral data exchange standard based on STEP (ISO‐10303), that will embrace product definition aspects crucial to successful SE: product requirements, systems architectures, product functionality, allocation, traceability and configuration management information. The standard will enable SE tools to exchange such information, and should be applicable to many industries.SEDRES is a three‐year European Commission‐funded ESPRIT project, running 1996–1998, which was initiated by Aerospatiale, Alenia, British Aerospace, DASA and Saab. Also contributing are the Universities of Loughborough, Linkoping, and the Australian Centre for Test & Evaluation.This paper describes the emerging standard, reports on early exchanges and on the successful vote for an ISO standardisation activity. It explains how the draft standard is being extended in the second project phase, and future intentions.