The suggestion to which you refer ("Repositories per se are therefore unlikely to become as important in engineering as they have become, or may become, in some other disciplines") is disclaimed in the report "It is important to note that the studies mentioned above refer for the most part to the information and communication needs of engineers of all types, and not just engineers within academia." I would not expect repositories of research outputs to satisfy the needs of those who are not researchers - but I would hope that they would satisfy the *research needs* of those who are.