Engineer telling niece to provide information (12)
I believe the answer is:
intelligence
'information' is the definition.
(I know that intelligence is a type of information)
'engineer telling niece' is the wordplay.
'engineer' indicates anagramming the letters.
'telling'+'niece'='tellingniece'
'tellingniece' with letters rearranged gives 'INTELLIGENCE'.
'to provide' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for intelligence that I've seen before include "Ken" , "Dope" , "Secret information" , "Brains -- news" , "Spy reports" .)