A dialysis machine that can treat kidney patients in the home, precision agriculture through vertical farming and transformative electron scanning microscopy are vying to be named the UK’s leading engineering innovation of 2022.

The Royal Academy of Engineering has today announced the shortlist for the 2022 MacRobert Award, the UK’s longest running and most prestigious award for UK engineering innovation. The three finalists represent strikingly different aspects of engineering and are recognised for technical innovation and the commercial and societal impact they’ve demonstrated.

Selected by a judging panel of esteemed engineering experts, the 2022 MacRobert Award finalists are:

• Intelligent Growth Solutions for helping to de-risk an agriculture sector that’s facing an ageing farming population and an uncertain, volatile future.  Intelligent Growth Solutions’ vertical farming technology blends engineering, crop science and agronomy expertise to manage all environmental inputs for optimal growth, flavour and longevity. The system houses ‘towers’ of crops within an enclosed structure that controls all aspects of the growing environment – light, temperature, humidity, irrigation, nutrition and even air consumption – while ensuring no water wastage at any point in the cycle. The level of control provided by this innovation supports the farmers of today and tomorrow by de-risking the early stages of crop cultivation, while also supporting plant diversification through high-density, high-value indoor crop production. The technology also has the potential to support reforestation through germination and early growth of tree saplings.

• Oxford Instruments for developing the Symmetry detector that integrates with scanning electron microscopes and dramatically increases the speed, sensitivity and resolution of analysis that is possible. Symmetry enables a deeper understanding of a material’s structure down to the nanoscale-level, allowing minuscule weaknesses or flaws in various materials to be identified and addressed. This opens up vast industrial and scientific opportunities – from developing far more robust and long-lasting batteries and semiconductors, to stronger aircraft turbine blades. It has even been used to analyse meteorites to better understand how extra-terrestrial rock was formed. Symmetry has turned what was a niche technology predominantly used in research labs into a more widely accessible process with applications across a variety of sectors and industries.

• Quanta Dialysis Technologies for creating a compact and portable dialysis machine, allowing more flexible and accessible care for patients with renal failure. Originally developed to reconstitute orange juice from concentrate, Quanta’s innovative disposable fluid cartridge system was repurposed for use in a compact haemodialysis machine. Simpler to operate, yet as powerful as traditional dialysis machines, Quanta’s SC+ haemodialysis system was designed to bring dialysis directly to the patient, allowing patients to treat themselves at home, rather than spending hours a week at healthcare facilities. It marks a major advance in dialysis technology, which has seen little innovation in decades, and is already used by several NHS Trusts. During the pandemic, Quanta provided its entire stock of dialysis machines to the NHS to help relieve some of the pressure in hospitals and ICUs. The innovation is already CE marked and FDA cleared and stands to be a global leader in the industry, which is projected to exceed $12bn in the US alone.

The winning team will be announced at the Royal Academy of Engineering Awards Dinner on 12 July at Leicester Square’s stunning new sustainably designed and engineered hotel, The Londoner, and will receive a £50,000 prize.  

For more than half a century MacRobert Award winners have been recognised for delivering outstanding engineering innovation, commercial success and tangible social benefit. The first award in 1969 was won jointly by Rolls-Royce for the Pegasus engine used in the iconic Harrier jump jet, and Freeman, Fox and Partners for designing the Severn Bridge. More recently, 2008 winner Touch Bionics i-Limb Hand has helped to transform medical prosthetics while people across all seven continents still rely on winning innovations from the likes of Jaguar Land Rover, Raspberry Pi and Inmarsat.

Professor Sir Richard Friend FREng FRS, Chair of the Royal Academy of Engineering MacRobert Award judging panel, said: “Engineering has a key role to play in combating the greatest challenges of our time – from climate change to driving a sustainable healthcare system through the COVID-19 pandemic and into the future. The breadth of the 2022 MacRobert Award finalists shows exactly that, from innovative healthcare technology that has reduced the strain on the NHS, to vertical farming with zero water waste and a step-change in electron microscopy that is revolutionising research and innovation across a variety of sectors.

“The global impact these vibrant and creative innovations have already had on their respective sectors and society at large is cementing UK engineering’s leading role on the world stage. It goes to show quite how far-reaching UK engineering now is, something that will only continue given the world-beating talent located right here in the UK.”

Notes to editors:

First presented in 1969, the MacRobert Award is widely regarded as the most coveted in the industry, honouring the winning organisation with a gold medal and the team members with a cash prize of £50,000. Founded by the MacRobert Trust, the award is presented and run by the Royal Academy of Engineering, with support from the Worshipful Company of Engineers.

The 2022 judging panel is made up of:

• Professor Sir Richard Friend FREng FRS (Chair of Judges), former Cavendish Professor of Physics, University of Cambridge; Founder, Cambridge Display Technology
• Naomi Climer CBE FREng, Chair of Council, International Broadcasting Convention (IBC); Former President Media Cloud Services, Sony
• Dr Andy Harter CBE DL FREng, Chair, Cambridge Network; Founder RealVNC
• Professor John Fisher CBE FREng FMedSci, former Professor of Mechanical Engineering, University of Leeds
• Professor Dame Julia King, The Baroness Brown of Cambridge DBE FREng FRS, Chair, The Carbon Trust
• Professor Gordon Masterton DL OBE FREng FRSE, Trustee; The MacRobert Trust; Chair of Future Infrastructure, University of Edinburgh; Former Vice-President, Jacobs
• Dr Ruth McKernan CBE, Venture Partner, SV Health Investors & Dementia Discovery Fund
• Professor Phil Nelson CBE FREng, Professor of Acoustics, University of Southampton
• Dr Liane Smith CBE FREng, Director, Larkton Ltd; former SVP Digital Solutions, Wood Group

The Royal Academy of Engineering is harnessing the power of engineering to build a sustainable society and an inclusive economy that works for everyone. In collaboration with its Fellows and partners, it’s growing talent and developing skills for the future, driving innovation and building global partnerships, and influencing policy and engaging the public to tackle the greatest challenges of our age.

The MacRobert Award press team can be contacted directly on: 
MacRobertAward@antidotecommunications.com

Congratulations to Fellows and friends of the Royal Academy of Engineering who have been recognised in The Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2022 for their services to engineering research, industry and wider society, including:

Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire GBE

Dr Dame Susan Elizabeth ION DBE FREng FRS, Lately Chair, Nuclear Innovation Research Advisory Board, and Honorary President, National Skills Academy for Nuclear. For services to Engineering

Knight Commander of the most honourable order of the Bath (Military division)

Air Marshal Richard John KNIGHTON CB FREng

Commanders of the Order of the British Empire CBE

Professor Mary Patricia RYAN FREng, Armourers and Brasiers’ Chair in Materials Science, Department of Materials, Imperial College London. For services to Education and to Materials Science and Engineering

Paul Jonathan STEIN FREng, Chairman, Rolls-Royce Small Modular Reactor Consortium. For services to the Economy

Professor Stephen John YOUNG FREng, Professor of Information Engineering, Information Engineering Division, Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge. For services to Software Engineering

Officers of the Order of the British Empire OBE

Professor Constantin COUSSIOS FREng, Director, Institute of Biomedical Engineering, University of Oxford. For services to Biomedical Engineering

Notes for Editors

The Royal Academy of Engineering is harnessing the power of engineering to build a sustainable society and an inclusive economy that works for everyone.

In collaboration with our Fellows and partners, we’re growing talent and developing skills for the future, driving innovation and building global partnerships, and influencing policy and engaging the public.

For more information please contact:

Jane Sutton at the Royal Academy of Engineering

T: +44 207 766 0636

E:  Jane Sutton

• New approaches needed to manage and operate safely within complex systems in an increasingly unpredictable world
• Traditional specialist engineering education and professional development must adapt to include learning from different sectors and social sciences

The Engineering X Safer Complex Systems (SCS) mission has published 18 new case studies examining the systemic successes and failures of different events around the world and how approaches to the design, construction, operation, management or governance of complex systems have resulted in safe or unsafe outcomes.

From fires and train crashes to flood management and nursing care, the case studies provide a new resource to support the education and professional development necessary to achieve safer complex systems.

The case studies cover a wide variety of events, involving different complex systems, geographies and stakeholders, such as the 2011 Brisbane floods, the 2019 economic and health crises in Chile, and major fires in Dhaka and the Cape. Also covered are failures of humanitarian supply chains in famine areas, the partial collapse of new school buildings in Edinburgh, the Netherlands Delta flood protection programme, and the structural integrity of offshore wind turbines. Several well-known accidents from the past are revisited, including the capsizing of the Herald of Free Enterprise and Hatfield rail crash.

Many of the lessons learned are specific to a certain location or particular combination of factors but there are some common themes that are transferable and relevant to all sectors:

• Lack of systemic thinking and action over the lifetime of the systems
• Little or no attention to structure of governance early in activity
• Treating complex uncertain issues and risks with tools developed for complicated ones
• Lack of alignment of purpose between actors
• Ill-defined boundaries of responsibility, authority, accountability and legal structures
• Unverified assumptions
• Poor information sharing in the face of a blame or project-driven culture
• Inconsistent and poor data management to support statistical analysis and modelling
• Safety seen as an engineering or technology issue rather than a cultural or social issue

Dame Judith Hackitt DBE FREng, Chair of the Engineering X Safer Complex Systems Board, said: “The most severe threats to our civilisation are complex sociotechnical issues with many interdependencies and no right or wrong solutions. What is striking is that although these case studies come from a wide range of geographies, disciplines and sectors there are lessons to be learned that are more widely applicable.

“Engineers’ problem-solving and systems thinking skills are important to successfully responding to the world’s challenges, but in order to take on these responsibilities the profession must be fit for purpose.

“Those of us already in the workforce need to reach out beyond the silos into which our training has often funnelled us. We must learn lessons from and work more widely with others across international boundaries and with all parts of society in order to develop an inclusive, safe and sustainable future. The training and education of our future engineers must be reconfigured to develop and maintain their interest in addressing the many challenges and prepare them for working in a world of ever-increasing complexity.

“We encourage everyone to read and reflect on all these case studies—including those from outside their own sector—share them with their networks and, together, consider how the lessons learned might be applicable in their own professional situations.”

The Safer Complex Systems programme intends to further develop, and build from, the case study content to influence university curricula, continuing professional development (CPD) and chartership (CEng).

The case studies are:

1. Cyber–physical system shortfalls in the 2011 Brisbane flood (Australia)Project lead: Dr Giuliano Punzo, University of Sheffield, UK
2. Australian climate extremes and building transport network resilience (Australia)Project lead: Dr Kirsten MacAskill, University of Cambridge, UK
3. Planned Adaptive Regulation: Learnings from the Delta Programme (The Netherlands)Project lead: Dr Richard Judge, Bartlett Judge Associates, UK
4. A comparative study of fire risk emergence in informal settlements in Dhaka and Cape Town (South Africa, Bangladesh)Project lead: Danielle Antonellis, Kindling, USA
5. Community evacuation from wildfire events (USA, Canada)Project lead: Professor Steve Gwynne, Movement Strategies, UK
6. Towards a simple and safer nuclear sector: The 2005 THORP internal leak (UK)Project lead: Professor Francis Livens, University of Manchester, UK
7. Bexley train crash—a system failure (UK)Dr Chris Elliott MBE FREng, Pitchill Consulting, Switzerland
8. Revisiting the causes of the Hatfield Rail Crash (UK)Project lead: Professor Roger Kemp MBE FREng, Lancaster University, UK
9. A systems approach to reducing train accident risk (UK)Project lead: Brian Tomlinson, Network Rail, UK
10. Understanding and utilising data for a seasonally agnostic railway (UK)Project lead: Dr Brian Haddock, Network Rail, UK
11. Ro Ro passenger ferry safety: the capsizing of the Herald of Free Enterprise (UK and Belgium)
    Project lead: Professor Chengi Kuo, University of Strathclyde, UK
12. Towards intelligent dynamics of an active transport system for biking (Colombia)Project lead: Professor Andrés Medaglia Gonzalez, Universidad de Los Andes, Colombia
13. Complex systemic failures in the Edinburgh Schools case (UK)Project lead: Dr Jonathan Gosling, Cardiff University, UK
14. Systemic failures in nursing home care (Australia)Project lead: Professor Dr Joachim Sturmberg, University of Newcastle, Australia
15. Humanitarian supply chains: systems failures, recovery and emerging alternatives (International)Project lead: Claire Travers, Field Ready, Sweden
16. Social innovators as a human sensing network solving humanitarian challenges of the XXI century (Chile)Project lead: Matías René Rojas De Luca, Socialab, Chile
17. Improving resilience to major safety events by analysing case studies (USA, Japan, Australia, Hungary and UK)
    Project lead: Professor Richard Taylor MBE, University of Bristol, UK
18. Beyond the boundaries: characterising situational uncertainty in complex systems (International)Project lead: Dr Richard Judge, Bartlett Judge Associates, UK

Professor Brian Collins CB FREng, Chair of the SCS Case Study steering committee, led an online event on 25 May 2022 showcasing the work of the awardees and including a panel discussion. Following this event, all case studies were published in full on the Engineering X website.

Dame Judith Hackitt will talk about safer complex systems and other positive lessons we can learn about how to make the world better when she delivers a public lecture at the Engineering Professors Council annual congress on 7 June 2022.

Engineers and non-engineers in academia, industry and government with an interest and expertise in safety and complex systems are invited to join the mission’s growing global community to better understand and operate complex systems in safe way. Please contact Hazel Ingham, Senior Manager, Engineering X.

Notes for Editors

1. Engineering X is an international collaboration founded by the Royal Academy of Engineering and Lloyd’s Register Foundation that brings together some of the world’s leading problem-solvers to address the great challenges of our age. Our global network of expert engineers in academia and industry are working in partnership with leaders in business, government and civil society to share knowledge and best practice, explore new approaches and technologies, and educate and train the next generation of engineers to improve safety and deliver impact.

   The Engineering X, Safer Complex Systems mission was launched in June 2019 to enhance the safety of complex infrastructure systems globally. Safer Complex Systems is governed through a board chaired by Dame Judith Hackitt DBE FREng, current Chair of Enginuity, Board member of High Value Manufacturing Catapult and former Chair of the Health and Safety Executive.

2. The Royal Academy of Engineering is harnessing the power of engineering to build a sustainable society and an inclusive economy that works for everyone. In collaboration with our Fellows and partners, we’re growing talent and developing skills for the future, driving innovation and building global partnerships, and influencing policy and engaging the public. Together we’re working to tackle the greatest challenges of our age.
3. Lloyd’s Register Foundation is an independent global charity that helps to protect life and property at sea, on land, and in the air. The Foundation has partnered with the Royal Academy of Engineering to tackle the most pressing engineering safety and sustainability problems, and to develop these into practical and accessible outputs for the engineering profession and affected communities.

Media enquiries to: Pippa Cox at the Royal Academy of Engineering Tel. +44 207 766 0745; email: Pippa.Cox@raeng.org.uk

Students from the Academy’s Connecting STEM Teachers schools network in Northern Ireland have celebrated the 90th anniversary of Amelia Earhart landing unexpectedly near Londonderry when she became the first woman to fly the Atlantic solo in May 1932.

The Amelia Earhart STEM Challenge, hosted by Ulster University on 20 May 2022, brought together students from across the region to compete in design challenges ranging from Longest Flying Distance to Best Plane Aesthetics. The STEM Challenge allowed them to demonstrate their talents and celebrate the magnificent achievements of Amelia Earhart and her unique aviation link with Derry in a way that was both fun and educational.

The winners of The Amelia Earhart Legacy Association Perpetual Trophy were Thornhill College, who also won a helicopter ride with their teacher over Derry and along the flight path taken by Amelia Earhart before she landed on Gallagher’s farm in Ballyarnett, courtesy of City of Derry Airport and Cutting Edge Helicopters.

The winning team from Thornhill College Left to right: Ella-Jane McChrystal, Niamh Donnelly, Emma Doherty, Aimee Kerr and Mia Bo Cheung

Among the guests were the Mayor Graham Warke and representatives of Atchinson Amelia Earhart Foundation visiting from America. Prizes were presented by Maressa McWilliams, Senior Marketing Executive, City of Derry Airport, and Karen Seaberg, Chair of the Board of Directors, Atchinson Amelia Earhart Foundation.

The Amelia Earhart STEM Challenge was initiated by Clare Doherty, the Academy’s Connecting STEM Teachers coordinator in Northern Ireland. She is the great-granddaughter of Robert Gallagher, the farmer who was among the first to greet the celebrated US women pilot at Ballyarnett when she landed in one of his fields. Clare recounted the story to the BBC.

End

The Government Office for Science (GO-Science) has today launched a suite of documents to help civil servants use systems thinking to create more effective and enduring policies to address increasingly complex problems.

The Royal Academy of Engineering contributed to the development of the documents in collaboration with the civil service’s Systems Thinking Interest Group and Policy Profession Unit. The suite includes an introduction to systems thinking, case studies, a toolkit, and the systems thinking ‘journey’ that aligns systems thinking to existing civil service approaches and maps systems thinking principles to stages of policy design.

The Academy has for many years championed the use of systems approaches by government as a means of structuring integrated policy responses to complex challenges. Systems thinking helps to make sense of complexity, change our understanding of issues, find ways of achieving better outcomes, and see new opportunities to solve multiple problems at the same time.

Professor Sir Jim McDonald, President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, says of this latest step by government: “The development of these resources signals an important recognition of the need for and importance of systems thinking and systems approaches within policy making. I welcome these resources as an important step toward equipping civil and public servants with the questions and approaches they need to address the most complex policy challenges facing governments today. The Royal Academy of Engineering stands ready to support government further on its journey in understanding and embedding these crucial perspectives and methods in their vital work.”

The Academy also promotes the use of systems approaches through its Policy Fellowships—an intensive professional development programme that supports better evidence-based policymaking through engineering perspectives and systems approaches. The programme is open for applications until 28 June.

Policy Fellows are selected from exceptional civil and public servants with a variety of insights, expertise and backgrounds from across the policy community who are interested in progressing a policy challenge through exposure to engineering expertise. The programme injects the fresh and practical perspectives of the ‘engineering habits of the mind’ into policy work and explores new ways of working between policymakers and engineers. The programme has supported 47 Policy Fellows since it started in 2019.

In a further development, the Policy Fellows and the Policy Profession Unit (PPU) have created a series of interactive workshops for civil and public servants—the Systems Thinking Knowledge Series—as an additional means to show how policy makers can use systems thinking approaches to create more effective and enduring policies. Each workshop focuses on a specific policy challenge and how the Policy Fellows used aspects of systems thinking to address that challenge.

The series is sponsored by Tamara Finkelstein, Permanent Secretary at Defra and Head of the Policy Profession, and Sir Patrick Vallance, Chief Scientific Adviser and Head of the Government Science & Engineering Profession.

Notes for Editors

1. The Royal Academy of Engineering is harnessing the power of engineering to build a sustainable society and an inclusive economy that works for everyone. In collaboration with our Fellows and partners, we’re growing talent and developing skills for the future, driving innovation and building global partnerships, and influencing policy and engaging the public. Together, we’re working to tackle the greatest challenges of our age.

2. The Government Office for Science advise the Prime Minister and members of the Cabinet, to ensure that government policies and decisions are informed by the best scientific evidence and strategic long-term thinking. We aim to deliver science advice mechanisms that are efficient, effective, speak truth to power and are embedded irreversibly in government systems, and have visible impact through both pro-active and demand-led science advice that is relevant, excellent, and delivered fit for purpose. 

Media enquiries to: Pippa Cox at the Royal Academy of Engineering Tel. +44 207 766 0745; email: Pippa.Cox@raeng.org.uk

Open waste burning is one of the major contributors of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and poses major health hazards owing to the cocktail of air pollutants it discharges, according to a report published this week. The report, Open burning of waste in Africa: Challenges and opportunities, has been compiled by the Engineering X Safer End of Engineered Life mission in partnership with  the UN High-Level Climate Champions (UNHLC) and launched at the 9^th Africities summit in Kisumu, Kenya.

Key points include:

• Open burning of waste produces 11% of global black carbon emissions, with 26% of global waste burned at a residential level and 15% spontaneously burned at dump sites.
• Emissions from solid waste driven by open dumps and landfills account for about 5-12% of total global GHG emissions while methane generated from decomposing organic waste accounts for around 20% of global methane.
• Open burning of waste accounts for 29% of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution in the air and this together with other air pollutants cause nearly 1.2 million premature deaths per year in Africa.

According to the report, authored by UN High-Level Champions Waste Leads Professor Desta Mebratu and Dr Andriannah Mbandi, Sub-Saharan Africa generated around 9% of global waste as of 2016, or 180 million tonnes. About two-thirds of that is dropped in landfills and open dump sites, where it risks polluting both the local environment and global climate.

The report notes that children living near these dump sites are ingesting and inhaling toxic substances. The particulate matter emitted in the air causes lung and heart disease, cancer, infertility, low birthweight, premature birth, cognitive development problems, and premature death. Dump sites emit around 20% of the world’s methane and 11% of black carbon – two potent short-lived greenhouse gases that must be slashed in order to limit the impacts of climate change.

The study also highlights that around 70-80% of the municipal solid waste generated in African cities is recyclable – such as biodegradable waste, plastics and paper – and could be worth US$8 billion per year if kept in a circular economy. It recommends taking an engineering approach to addressing the structural deficiencies in waste management and promoting a circular economy that prioritises reuse, recycling and recovery will strengthen local manufacturing, create jobs, reduce unemployment, support inclusive and sustainable local and regional economies, and reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

The report makes it clear that there are major challenges, but also opportunities for the region, including:

• Reducing and phasing out open waste burning in African urban centres would have significant health and environmental benefits besides reducing emission of GHGs.
• African countries have unique opportunities to secure multiple economic, social and environmental benefits through local separation and recycling of waste as secondary resources.
• This would require moving away from piecemeal interventions to systemic transformation with a focus on addressing the systemic deficiencies of waste management systems in African urban centres.

The report also calls for an expansion of the UN High-Level Climate Champions’ partnership with Engineering X, an international collaboration founded by the Royal Academy of Engineering and Lloyd’s Register Foundation, by welcoming other international and regional partners into the work – particularly in the run-up to November’s COP27 summit in Sharm El-Sheikh. The Engineering X Safer End of Engineered Life mission aims to apply engineering expertise to improving existing waste management practices and supporting design-for-waste principles and safer, more sustainable waste policies in the longer term.

In a joint foreword to the report, the UN Climate Change High-Level Champions for COP26 and COP27, Nigel Topping and Dr Mahmoud Mohieldin, say:

“The African Union has set an ambitious target for African cities to recycle at least half of their waste by 2023. Many are still far from achieving this, but according to the UN Environment Programme the goal can be met and even surpassed with a shift of organic waste to composting and bioenergy recovery, along with the refurbishment, repair, reuse and recycling of plastics, paper, metal, glass, tyres and electronic waste.

“To do this, the transformation needs to be systemic. It needs to include the informal waste recyclers who are already getting waste back into the African economy, as well as national governments, cities and development partners.”

Notes for Editors

1. Engineering X is an international collaboration, founded by the Royal Academy of Engineering and Lloyd’s Register Foundation, that brings together some of the world’s leading problem-solvers to address the great challenges of our age. Our global network of expert engineers, academics and business leaders is working to share best practice, explore new technologies, educate and train the next generation of engineers, build capacity, improve safety and deliver impact. 

2. Engineering X Safer End of Engineered Life is a five-year programme with the mission to reduce the number of incidents, accidents and casualties that happen as a result of safety issues by improving existing waste management practices and supporting design-for-waste principles and safer, more sustainable waste policies in the longer term. Its objectives are:

• to understand and apply practical interventions to improve safety at end of engineered life
• to build an international community of knowledge and good practice across national and sectorial boundaries for the improvement of safety in end of engineered life
• to raise awareness and public understanding of these issues

3. The UN Climate Change High-Level Champions, Nigel Topping for the UK’s COP26 and Dr Mahmoud Mohieldin for Egypt’s COP27, are responsible for mobilising stronger, faster and more credible climate action from businesses, investors, cities and regions worldwide. The Champions’ team launched three UN-backed campaigns in the run-up to COP26 to bring these non-state actors together: the Race to Zero, for robust and science-based commitments to net zero emissions before 2050; the Race to Resilience, for commitments to build resilience by 2030; and the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, uniting financial institutions.

4. Lloyd’s Register Foundation is an independent global charity with a unique structure and an important mission: engineering a safer world. We reduce risk and enhance the safety of the critical infrastructure that modern society relies upon in areas such as energy, transport, and food.

   Our vision is to be known worldwide as a leading supporter of engineering-related research, training and education that makes a real difference in improving the safety of the critical infrastructure on which modern society relies. In support of this, we promote scientific excellence and act as a catalyst working with others to achieve maximum impact. We meet our aims by awarding grants, by direct activity, and through the societal benefit activities of our trading group, which shares our mission. Through our grant making we aim to connect science, safety and society by supporting research of the highest quality and promoting skills and education.

They have also established a team of nearly 100 global experts who work on a series of cross-cutting special programmes and engage extensively with global leaders from across governments, regions, cities, businesses, and communities. The team, which is hosted by the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, is made up of a mix of pro-bono secondments, sponsored roles, volunteers, and contractors.

5. The Royal Academy of Engineering is harnessing the power of engineering to build a sustainable society and an inclusive economy that works for everyone.

In collaboration with our Fellows and partners, we’re growing talent and developing skills for the future, driving innovation and building global partnerships, and influencing policy and engaging the public.

Together we’re working to tackle the greatest challenges of our age.

For more information please contact:

Jane Sutton at the Royal Academy of Engineering

T: +44 207 766 0636

E:  Jane Sutton

• New round of Ingenious programme awards 23 projects with grants of up to £30,000 to support innovative public engagement
• Projects are aimed at inspiring future generations of engineers

The Royal Academy of Engineering has announced 23 new Ingenious awards for public engagement projects designed to inspire the next generation of engineers. The funded projects will engage communities across the UK on a variety of topics, including climate change, sport, cultural heritage, and increasing diversity and inclusion in engineering.

The Ingenious programme started in 2007. Funded by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, it offers grants of up to £30,000 to support creative public engagement with engineering projects while providing engineers with the communication and presentation skills to share their stories, passion, and expertise with the public.

Many of this year’s projects focus on heritage sites, sustainability and climate change, including some that coincide with upcoming cultural events:

St Paul’s Cathedral: Building the Dastardly Triple Dome will explore the construction of the triple dome of St Paul’s Cathedral, one of Sir Christopher Wren’s most complex and awe-inspiring designs. Students will build and decorate their own miniature dome to coincide with the Wren 300 festival in 2023, celebrating Sir Christopher Wren’s legacy.

Sports Shoes – A Feat of Engineering will introduce children aged 9-10 in Manchester to sports engineering and the design of sports shoes ahead of the upcoming Commonwealth Games and FIFA World Cup tournaments.

The End of the World Immersive Adventure is a narrative-based escape room in Lewisham coinciding with its London Borough of Culture 2022 status and Climate Emergency focus. Participants will have to negotiate a series of physical engineering, software engineering, and maths puzzles escape the room and “save the world” from climate change disasters.

Smart Seas is a one-year project with children from 12 primary schools across Blackpool exploring the impacts of climate change and pollution in oceans. Pupils will design and build a physical device to collect data on ocean health from coastal waters with the help of engineers from the University of Central Lancashire.

Flying Futures is designed to engage schools and the public ahead of the launch of a Green Technology Hub in South Yorkshire. The project examines excellence in engineering through the lens of a heritage aircraft and explores the future of an environmentally sustainable aerospace industry.

Exploring heat loss and energy efficiency in community buildings will see volunteer engineers work with church groups to understand and apply basic thermal modelling principles to churches.

Ingenious Panel Chair Professor Lucy Rogers FREng said: “The ‘E’ in STEM is often silent – and currently many engineering stories from across the UK are not being told. The Ingenious programme provides engineers with opportunities to further develop their communication skills, enabling them to illustrate their work and inspire the public in new, creative ways.

“Engineering can mean different things to different people. These Ingenious projects can broaden perceptions of engineering to encourage more people from diverse backgrounds to engage with the profession and access future-shaping careers.”

Funded Ingenious projects 2022

The Play House, Birmingham

Daughters of Invention: Makerspace is an exciting partnership between The Play House, and the University of Birmingham’s School of Engineering. The project will develop student engineers’ confidence and public engagement skills whilst increasing primary school children’s engagement in and understanding of engineering. The project will deliver immersive drama engineering workshops in a fictional makerspace, where children and parents will solve engineering challenges and hear from a diverse group of engineers. At the end of the project, the children and their parents will undertake a treasure hunt with engineers through the campus engineering laboratories. The children, parents, and teachers will co-produce the project, embedding the core message that engineering is for everyone in their community.

Children’s Radio UK, across the UK

Engineering Academy is a multi-media project that will introduce and inspire children to explore and discover the opportunities that engineering offers everyone, irrespective of their backgrounds. Through a series of 26 weekly radio programmes, broadcast on national radio station Fun Kids and available as podcasts, children will hear engineers talk about what they do and what inspired them to become engineers. These audio programmes will help children learn informally whenever and however they want. Inspiring and fun resources will be available for children to download and complete to progress through the Academy, and host ‘Academy Live’ events across the UK. ‘Engineering Academy’ will help young engineers to learn and practise skills to become better communicators and public engagers.

National Aquaculture Centre, across the UK

In Engineering a Sustainable Food Solution, the National Aquaculture Centre (NAC), will develop a sustainable food production system, in partnership with the University of Leeds, Blackrow Ltd, Technical Ltd, and Aceleronenergy Ltd.

The AquaTrainer unit will then be showcased at the Humberston Eco Conservation Centre to provide educational and visitor workshops, with educational partnerships with the University of Leeds and other stakeholder organisations to engage with a broader regional cohort of young people.

Additional outcomes of the project include a functioning low carbon food production system for the Centre, CPD for engineers, and technical training programmes for young people on renewable energy systems and low carbon food production.

Cambridge Science Centre, East of England

Engineering our Tomorrows aims to boost children’s curiosity about the diverse nature and impact of engineering in resolving complex challenges.

The project will create exciting engineering-based outreach and resources for Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 students in schools and communities throughout the East of England. The students can enjoy a new interactive show, hands-on activities, and classroom kit boxes to continue engagement in the future. The resources will draw on the experience and knowledge of Future Infrastructure and Built Environment engineers and Cambridge Science Centre to inspire children to discover future infrastructure solutions.

University of Dundee, Dundee

Engineering the curriculum: inspiring the next generation of engineers aims to help change perceptions of engineering. Engineering is key to ensuring economic growth and improving quality of life. Despite the projected rise in demand for engineering talent, there is a shortage of people wanting to undertake engineering courses. Reasons for this include low confidence of schoolteachers in teaching engineering-related topics, misconceptions around the role and relevance of engineers to society and the absence of an enabling environment for pupils. 

The University of Dundee and the Association for Black and Minority Ethnic Engineers Scotland will address these issues by building diverse teams consisting of engineering professionals, students, and schoolteachers in Dundee. Teams will undertake training in public engagement before developing a range of practical engineering activities, framed around curriculum requirements. The activities developed will form part of a STEM library which local schools will be able to borrow to showcase engineering. Teams will engage with children during the delivery of activities in schools and participate in a public celebration day, promoting engineering role models in the community.

Surefoot CIC, Scotland

Exploring heat loss and energy efficiency in community buildings will see volunteer engineers work with churches and other community groups to help them understand the basic principles behind thermal modelling and apply them to their own spaces. Under the engineers’ guidance, each group will complete four two-hour exercises in their buildings over a year. They will explore how heating systems work, heat loss, thermal comfort, and possible future changes to their buildings in the drive to Net Zero, including the “people” side of enabling change. The groups will then plan and hold a community consultation showcasing their learning. This project will change the futures of some important buildings and create a culture in which communities remember to seek out and value the engineers who live among them.

ech2o, across the UK

Flamingo Engineering will engage a group of engineers, engineering students, and local young adults who will receive training and then co-deliver a workshop with ech2o. Through these workshops, the pupils will gain an understanding about what engineers do. With an entertaining and educational story, the workshop will reach teachers, teaching assistants, and through the pupils, families in the home, spreading the possibility and accessibility of an engineering career to a broad audience. The pupils will engage in a hands-on engineering activity and use the ‘Think it, Build it, Test it!’ model to encourage them to view engineering as an interesting path, open to all. ech2o’s programme will continue through an engineering club to run over six weeks after the initial workshop is completed.  All activities from both the workshop and engineering club will be freely downloadable, offering a lasting legacy of the project.

University of Sheffield, Yorkshire & the Humber

Flying Futures is designed to engage schools and the public ahead of the launch of a Green Technology Hub in South Yorkshire. This project looks at excellence in engineering through the lens of the Vulcan, a delta-winged heritage aircraft and explores the future of an environmentally sustainable aerospace industry. 

The project will engage with local communities across South Yorkshire, North Lincolnshire and the Humber. Flying Futures will be an interactive workshop roadshow that will support relationship-building between local schools, the public, the University of Sheffield, STEM education providers, local aerospace research and development organisations and engineers.

University of Salford, Salford

HandBuild/HandAssess will harness public curiosity surrounding upper-limb prosthetics to develop a public engagement toolkit. A training programme will be developed to equip PhD students and experienced researchers with the skills to communicate their research to young audiences. The engineers involved will gain the confidence to engage with the public before developing materials based on their research. The project will deliver a two-day campus visit where pupils take part in the HandBuild and Hand Assess packages, explore the routes into a career in medical engineering, and recognise how engineers work closely alongside healthcare professionals and patients to ensure positive outcomes.

W5 Science & Discovery Centre, Belfast

Maritime Engineering of the Future will combine engineers from Artemis Technologies and the Belfast Maritime Consortium with W5’s learning and engagement team to work with young people from schools and youth groups in a series of workshops and hands-on building sessions. The young maritime recruits will discover the importance of ship-building within the history of Belfast and Northern Ireland, the importance of global shipping today and its environmental impact. The programme will develop the public engagement skills of participating engineers, showcase engineering within the maritime sector, and provide an exciting and fun series of activities for all participants. This will culminate in the inaugural ‘Ingenious Cardboard Regatta’, with engineering activities and opportunities for families and the public to engage with maritime experts.

Sustrans, London

Minecraft Street Builders aims to encourage highway engineers to engage with the diverse communities they design for and to raise awareness among young people about highway engineering. Sustrans and BlockBuilders will upskill 15-20 highway engineers from three London boroughs in designing collaboratively for diversity and using Minecraft for engagement.

The engineers will then deliver interactive workshops for 180 students from three secondary schools, who will consider the needs of different users and design their dream local streets using Minecraft. The students will have the opportunity to showcase their ideas to the school community and feed into live projects being delivered by the borough engineers.

University of Manchester, Manchester

The Minesweeper Manchester competition will see teams of school students aged between 14-16 years old from across the North West region compete. The students will be tasked with building their own minesweeper robot featuring an integrated metal detector. Each team will be paired with two engineering undergraduates from the University of Manchester who will act as mentors to the students.

The competition will involve the teams designing and developing their robots over a few weeks with guidance and mentoring, before exhibiting their robots to complete challenges in front of an expert panel.

Motivez, London

Prospering Peckham places young people at the heart of the long-term strategy to reach Southwark’s climate change commitments by cutting emissions and developing green jobs.

It will run an 8-week programme and competition that connects engineers with 60 ambitious students aged 13-15 at Harris Academy Peckham, situated on London’s 9th-most polluted road, to develop engineering-based solutions to mitigate local pollution issues.

The project involves a series of fun activities, fireside chats, workshops, and mentoring led by inspirational young professionals. The students will increase their awareness of how engineers can solve these climate change and pollution issues and will build a campaign to advocate for how their green solutions can benefit their communities.

University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth

Puppets as Enzyme Engineers of the Imagination will train engineers to use puppetry to engage young people in Portsmouth and Bognor Regis in bioengineering projects and encourage them to pursue engineering careers.  The Centre for Enzyme Innovation focuses on developing biotechnological solutions as a low carbon solution for recycling plastic waste in a circular economy. The aim is to inspire young people by promoting the role of engineering, interpreted and discussed through co-design puppetry workshops between engineers from the University of Portsmouth and the Portsmouth Young Carers Centre with The Makers Guild, Making Theatre and local secondary schools students. A showcase event at Portsmouth Guildhall and online performances will be used to engage the regional, national and international public with the event.

EDT Engineering Development Trust, across the UK

SEND STEM will deliver a careers-themed STEM (science, technology, engineering, and maths) suite of activities for young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). The project’s long-term goal is to provide SEND-specialised STEM careers guidance, to ensure that SEND pupils have access to the tailored support they need to pursue equal opportunities in STEM.

Engineers will work with teams of students on three-day STEM activities and share their engineering journeys. The project will also signpost next steps such as apprenticeships open to young people in their local area and engaging potential employers.

University of Central Lancashire, Blackpool

Smart Seas is a one-year project with primary school children from 12 schools across Blackpool exploring the impacts of climate change and pollution in oceans. Pupils will design and build a physical device to collect data on ocean health from coastal waters with the help of engineers from the University of Central Lancashire. In a series of 12 interactive after-school sessions, the pupils will engage with guest engineers and be invited to the University to explore a cross-section of engineering including mathematics, materials, coding, robotics, and motor engineering.

Spacefund, Kent

Space Engineers is an exciting new project led by Spacefund, bringing a team of 30 volunteer Engineers and 400 Girlguides on a STEM-themed space mission to the Moon. The project will provide the girls with an opportunity to use their problem-solving and engineering skills within a Lunar Base – a series of domes and tunnels that simulate an immersive ‘escape room’ style experience. The mentor engineers will help develop the engineering challenges, support the girls through their Girlguiding Space Engineers badge, and participate with them to succeed in their space mission. Space Engineers will light the fire of inspiration for the next generation of women in engineering.

Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester

Sports Shoes – A Feat of Engineering will promote an inclusive economy by engaging primary school children from underrepresented groups in Manchester through sport. The project will introduce children aged 9-10 to the design of sports shoes, through discussions, hands-on activities, and testing. Leveraging the success of EURO 2020 and Tokyo 2020, and ahead of the Commonwealth Games and FIFA World Cup in 2022, this project will showcase sports engineering.

Working as an engineering team in their schools, children will design a sports shoe midsole under the guidance of engineering ambassadors, learning about the latest trends in environmental design and bringing their designs to life with 3D printing. Engineers new to public engagement will become champions of engineering and act as role models for children and teachers, demonstrating the exciting ways that engineering underpins society, from the latest breakthrough technology to the shoes on their feet.

Diocese of London, London

St Paul’s Cathedral: Building the Dastardly Triple Dome will run a one-day workshop for trainee engineers and secondary school pupils from underrepresented backgrounds. The project will explore the construction of the triple dome of St Paul’s Cathedral, as one of Sir Christopher Wren’s most complex and awe-inspiring designs.

Students will build and decorate a miniature dome in spring 2023 as part of the Wren 300 festival in the church of Holy Sepulchre, The National Musicians’ Church Holborn, the largest Parish Church in inner London. The project will be led by Professor Chris Wise RDI FREng, Senior Director of Expedition Engineering, together with engineers, engineering trainees, and alumni from The Stephen Lawrence Trust (now Blueprint for All) and Brunel University with Catherine Ramsden, architect and Founder Director of the Really Useful Company.

Liberty Arts Yorkshire, Yorkshire

STEM Theatre in a Box aims to provide resources and workshops for young children in EYFS and KS1. Using storytelling, theatre, and practical science, the project aims to give children aged 5-7 years the opportunity and resources to build Science Capital and an understanding of how science and engineering are relevant to them using through real-life issues.

The project will focus on resources, workshops, and performances for schools and communities in underserved areas. The workshops will tell the stories of engineers and their work through interwoven dance, movement, puppetry, and science and engineering experiments and activities. The project will train engineers from sustainability-related disciplines to present their work and communicate with young children and families.

STEMAZING Kids CIC, across the UK

The STEMAZING Inspiration Academy is a project that supports and empowers women in STEM to be more confident visible role models and inspire our future engineers.

Research shows that there are huge benefits in giving both young boys and young girls female STEM role models which will help build a more diverse and inclusive future STEM workforce.

This programme is designed for women in engineering and builds their confidence on camera, culminating in them delivering a series of six hands-on and interactive STEMAZINGKids sessions that champion diversity and inclusion in STEM to 7-9 year olds via Zoom in the classroom.  This remote delivery will allow more schools in underserved areas from across the UK to take part and engage with women in STEM.

University of Greenwich, London

The End of the World Immersive Adventure is a narrative-based Escape Room for young people and families to be designed and delivered by a group of engineers and engineering students. Using co-design principles and working with stakeholders, they will develop and build physical engineering, software engineering, and maths puzzles that must be negotiated to successfully escape the room and “save the world” from climate change disasters.

Based in Lewisham, the launch will coincide with London Borough of Culture 2022 and its Climate Emergency focus. The project will be developed into a sustainable social enterprise, providing an engineering engagement legacy designed to reach underserved communities.

University of the West of England (UWE Bristol), West of England

We Make Our Future is an interactive and educational planetarium show for the next generation of Digital Engineers. Explorer Dome and the DETI Inspire team at UWE Bristol have created a new experience to celebrate the ingenuity of human engineering. Full-dome digital projections will allow visitors to view engineering marvels from history and explore the pros and cons of modern life. The planetarium show was previewed to the public at the COP26 Planetarium in November 2021. This project will enhance the legacy of the show by reaching diverse young people from across the West of England with a schools’ tour. Experienced presenters from Explorer Dome will train regional engineers in presentation skills to inspire young people. Films of sustainability engineers at their workplaces will showcase how the engineering design process can address the Climate and Ecological Emergency. The presenter-led planetarium experience will be delivered inside the immersive Explorer Dome in schools or remotely via Zoom.

Notes for Editors

1. Ingenious is an awards scheme, run by the Royal Academy of Engineering, for projects that engage the public with engineers and engineering. The scheme is supported by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

The Ingenious programme aims to:

• inspire creative public engagement with engineering projects
• motivate engineers to share their stories, passion and expertise with wider audiences and develop their communication and engagement skills
• raise awareness of the diversity, nature and impact of engineering among people of all ages and backgrounds
• provide opportunities for engineers to engage with members of the public from groups currently underrepresented in engineering.

Ingenious has funded over 250 projects to date, providing opportunities for close to 7,000 engineers to take part in public engagement activities, to gain skills in communication and to help bring engineering to the very centre of society. Ingenious projects have reached over 3.2 million members of the public.

2. The Royal Academy of Engineering is harnessing the power of engineering to build a sustainable society and an inclusive economy that works for everyone.

In collaboration with our Fellows and partners, we’re growing talent and developing skills for the future, driving innovation and building global partnerships, and influencing policy and engaging the public.

Together we’re working to tackle the greatest challenges of our age.

For media enquiries please contact: Chris Urquhart at the Royal Academy of Engineering Tel. +44 207 766 0725; email: Chris.Urquhart@raeng.org.uk

The UK government has today published its energy security strategy, detailing plans for cleaner and more affordable energy to help address the challenges of rising global energy prices and volatility in international markets

Commenting on the strategy, Professor Sir Jim McDonald FREng FRSE, President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, says:

“The UK’s energy system faces a combination of threats from high consumer costs that threaten to worsen energy poverty, disruptions in the global supply chain due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, increasing risk to energy security and unsustainably high carbon emissions as a result of fossil fuel dependence, which must fall rapidly and immediately in order to have any chance of meeting the Paris goal of 1.5C.

“There are many vital, low-regrets policies that would address all these issues at the same time, particularly:

• rapid renewables and energy storage deployment alongside energy network investment; 
• home insulation measures which deliver at least half a million retrofits per year, including support for heat pump supply chains; and,
• measures to reduce energy demand and increase energy efficiency across all sectors.

“We are pleased to see some of this in the energy security strategy, such as further expansion in the ambition for offshore and floating wind power. A focus on the system level architecture is also welcome and a vital step to enable the transformation required in the energy system as a whole to reach net zero. However, there are some unanswered questions that must be addressed. New nuclear could take until 2035 to make a difference and is reliant on the availability of technology and skills, neither of which is guaranteed. We will need more than targets to realise the ambition for 10GW of low carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030, not least the requirement for significant investment to rapidly and urgently scale critical infrastructure such as Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage for blue hydrogen and investment in renewable energy generation and electrolyser roll out for green hydrogen. And in the meantime, we need more short-term measures to increase energy independence or reduce emissions at the scale required, particularly demand-side measures, such as home insulation policies.

“The scale of the skills challenge should also not be underestimated. This demand for massive growth in green jobs comes at a time when engineering skills have largely been stagnating over the past ten years. In higher education, the proportion of students studying engineering has remained at around 5% for the past 15 years, and in certain subject areas such as electronic and electrical engineering, critical to our net-zero transition, there has been long-term decline. The numbers of new apprentices starting engineering and manufacturing apprenticeships has also been in decline. Much of what the government is doing to address the challenge is moving in the right direction, but the tendency towards letting the market dictate pace, scale and detail is still a concern. We need greater consideration of skills as a strategic national asset with more direct government interventions and less reliance on the market to find our future engineers and technicians.”

On 4 April the International Panel on Climate Change published its Sixth Assessment Report on Mitigation of Climate Change, on which Sir Jim commented:

“This IPCC report makes it clearer than ever that we must accelerate progress against our climate change promises and move to decarbonise our economy and infrastructure.  Our current trajectory will lead to 3.2C warming by 2100 and we may not have time to respond to further warnings. While the current energy crisis is the first big challenge of the just transition, it brings with it the opportunity to pivot away from fossil fuels towards cheaper renewables and a low carbon energy system as well as to support vulnerable people through home energy efficiency retrofit. The report makes it clear that the cost of the transition cannot be an excuse for delay – the economic case made by the report authors is strong, highlighting that lower cost mitigation options could reduce global GHG emissions by at least half the 2019 level by 2030, while still allowing GDP to grow. All of this means that the solution to both the UK’s short term energy crisis and our long term climate challenge are the same; redoubling our efforts on mitigation policies that focus on shifting from fossil fuels to renewables, reducing demand, and retrofitting buildings.”

Notes for Editors

1.    In January 2020, the National Engineering Policy Centre (NEPC) began a programme of work to explore, inform, and advise policymakers on some of the hardest cross-cutting challenges and the opportunities that need to be addressed. For more information on the work of this initiative please see our Net Zero pages.

2.    The National Engineering Policy Centre connects policy makers with critical engineering expertise to inform and respond to policy issues of national importance, giving policymakers a route to advice from across the whole profession, and the profession a unified voice on shared challenges.  

The Centre is an ambitious partnership, led by the Royal Academy of Engineering, between 43 different UK engineering organisations representing 450,000 engineers.  

Our ambition is that the National Engineering Policy Centre will be a trusted partner for policy makers, enabling them to access excellent engineering expertise, for social and economic benefit. 

3.    The Royal Academy of Engineering is harnessing the power of engineering to build a sustainable society and an inclusive economy that works for everyone.

In collaboration with our Fellows and partners, we’re growing talent and developing skills for the future, driving innovation and building global partnerships, and influencing policy and engaging the public.

Together we’re working to tackle the greatest challenges of our age.

For more information please contact:

Jane Sutton at the Royal Academy of Engineering

T: +44 207 766 0636

E:  Jane Sutton

• Latest analysis of the UK spinouts landscape identifies top universities, local authorities, sectors and investors.
• Findings highlight gender imbalance among leadership, success across UK regions and the impact of Covid-19.

Read the full report

A stark gender imbalance persists among directors and founders of UK spinouts, according to a report published today by the Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Hub and Beauhurst. The proportion of spinouts with a leadership team containing one or more female founders or directors remains low. The data indicates that some 86% of spinouts have all male founders, and 92% have all male directors.

Spotlight on spinouts: UK academic spinout trends examines where and how effectively innovations developed in universities are being turned into real-world products, processes and commercial successes. Following the first edition published in 2021, the second edition identifies strong representation across UK regions in the top 20 universities by the number of spinouts generated, with high performers found in the Midlands, Northern England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The 2022 report features a spotlight on universities ranked 11-20 on this list as important contributors to the spinout economy, alongside institutions with more established commercialisation teams.

The data compiled analyses which universities are successfully generating spinouts, their geographic spread, top sectors, investments and who is making them, survival rates and growth trajectories, Innovate UK grants, and gender, age, and nationality of leadership. The impact of Covid-19 on spinouts is also examined alongside the IP policies and stakes taken by universities.

Findings in the report include:

• There are currently 1,130 active spinouts in the UK as of January 2022.
• Investment in spinout companies almost doubled in 2021 with a record £2.54 billion equity investment raised across 389 deals. This reflects a trend of significant increases in spinout investment annually in the last decade.
• The spinout community continued to grow during the pandemic, with widespread hiring and 258 businesses receiving Innovate UK grants for Covid-19-related efforts.
• The figures for 2021 mark a return to expected investment cycles following the macroeconomic challenges resulting from Covid-19 and Brexit, with an average equity investment size of £6.70 million.
• Pharmaceuticals was the highest-performing sector, along with research tools/reagents and analytics/insight performing strongly. AI, precision medicine, and eHealth mark the top emerging sectors.
• The University of Oxford was the top university by number of spinouts with 193 spinouts generated since 2011 – substantially more than other UK universities. The list of top 20 universities features strong representation from the Midlands, Northern England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, as other universities accelerate their spinout generation.
• While only half of all startups will survive for more than five years, the average lifetime for an academic spinout is almost nine years.

The Academy’s annual Spotlight on spinouts report aims to share important evidence about the UK spinout landscape to inform wider debate, future policy and build upon the Enterprise Hub’s work to support spinouts and entrepreneurs.

Science Minister George Freeman said: “This report highlights the vital role university spinouts play in our innovation economy – raising a record £2.54 billion last year creating the companies, technologies and jobs of tomorrow. It’s great to see so much spinout activity beyond the ‘Golden Triangle’ – spreading opportunities across all parts of the UK as we committed in the Levelling-Up White Paper. High growth spinouts are a key driver of widening access to opportunities.

“The success of these companies is key to the UK’s ambitions to become a Science Superpower, increase R&D spending to 2.4% of GDP, and achieve sustainable growth, job creation and prosperity across the country.

“This insightful data shows that there is significant progress to be made in improving diversity in British science. That is why we have published our first-of-its-kind R&D People & Culture Strategy, identifying the urgency of ensuring our science and innovation ecosystem welcomes a broad range of perspectives, people and ideas.”

Maria Dramalioti-Taylor, Managing Partner at Beacon Capital LLP, Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Committee Member, and member of the project steering group, said, “It’s fantastic to see the second edition of this report shed light on the current spinouts landscape in the UK. It’s our hope that recognising IP and commercialisation successes – and failures – will lead to progressive improvement within the spinout sector, including the encouragement of leadership diversity among spinouts. We want to ensure that the voices of excellent academic entrepreneurs influence wider debate and future research commercialisation policy.”

The Academy aims to support innovation further by providing an upcoming practical guide for entrepreneurs wishing to spin out from their universities based on the experiences of Enterprise Hub members. In addition, the Academy is also developing an ambitious new EDI Toolkit to support spinouts and other startups to embed more diverse and inclusive cultures and leverage the many benefits of embedding EDI in everyday operations.

Notes for Editors

1. The Enterprise Hub was formally launched in April 2013. Since then, we have supported over 290 researchers, recent graduates and SME leaders to start up and scale up businesses that can give practical application to their inventions. We’ve awarded over £11 million in grant funding, and our Hub Members have gone on to raise over £800 million in additional funding.

2. The Royal Academy of Engineering is harnessing the power of engineering to build a sustainable society and an inclusive economy that works for everyone. In collaboration with our Fellows and partners, we’re growing talent and developing skills for the future, driving innovation and building global partnerships, and influencing policy and engaging the public. Together we’re working to tackle the greatest challenges of our age.

For media enquiries please contact: Chris Urquhart at the Royal Academy of Engineering Tel. +44 207 766 0725; email: Chris.Urquhart@raeng.org.uk

The Academy is delighted to announce that ten successful applicants will join the seventh cohort of its prestigious Policy Fellowships programme:

• Matthew Blackmur, Innovation Lead, Energy, Clean Growth & Infrastructure Sector Team, UKRI 

• Ross Burton, Area Lead for Oxfordshire, Cities and Local Growth Unit, BEIS 

• Sarah Butler, Energy Innovation Programme Manager, BEIS 

• James Claverley, Head of Government Relations & Partnerships, National Physical Laboratory

• James Davey, Head of Inventory & Mitigation, BEIS 

• Frances Downey, Head of Research & Innovation culture, UKRI 

• Abby Jitendra, Principal Policy Manager, Energy Team, Citizens’ Advice 

• Charlie Smoothy, Senior Policy Adviser, National Security Cyber Policy Lead, Home Office

• Andy Sweeting, Head of Transport, Labour Market and Skills, Department for Transport

• Matt Wright, LEP Innovation Lead & Universities Innovation Manager, Lancaster University 

The Policy Fellows will join the programme virtually between April and June 2022. They will take part in a series of activities designed to help them make rapid progress on their chosen policy challenges, including one-to-one meetings with experts, coaching sessions and group workshops.  They will learn first-hand how engineers solve problems using techniques such as systems thinking, apply this to complex policy questions and have an opportunity to expand their personal networks with the Academy’s community of innovators and leaders. Collectively they will meet over 100 leading engineers handpicked from the Academy’s UK and international networks.

Dr David Cleevely CBE FREng, Chair of the Policy Fellowships Working Group, said:

 “The Academy’s Policy Fellowships programme is in its third year with a strong new cohort from across government and throughout the UK.  The growing numbers show there is huge demand for applying engineering and systems thinking to a variety of the most complex policy challenges facing us. We are actively engaged with those who have already been through the programme and I continue to be excited by the potential of this unique network of policymakers to transform policy through engineering.”

Engineering Better Policy

The Policy Fellowships programme has a growing influence on policymaking practice. It is now a network of 47 alumni and we are on track to exceed 50 alumni by the end of 2022.

The improved understanding of challenges and solutions is already having a direct impact on policymaking. Writing in our programme’s insights report Engineering better policy, Policy Fellows share the aspiration that the programme will make a big contribution to changing how public sector organisations operate in the coming years. The range of connections across a diversity of departments and authorities creates a promising network as government increasingly focuses on science, engineering and technology.

‘My background inspired me to join the Policy Fellowships programme and ensure civil servants take equality and inclusivity into account while developing and implementing new policies. Following discussions with experts I identified inclusion as aligning with the systems-based approach advocated by engineers.’

Louise Dunsby Deputy Director, Innovation Policy, BEIS

‘The Policy Fellowship is an important collaboration to promote closer working between policymakers and engineers as government confronts increasingly complex and connected challenges.’

Simon Lawrence Head of Project Futures, Infrastructure and Projects Authority

Next cohort: applications open 26 April until 28 June 2022

The next cohort of Policy Fellows will start in September 2022. Applications will open on 26 April and will close on 28 June 2021. For more information about the programme and how to apply please visit www.raeng.org.uk/policyfellowships or email policyfellowships@raeng.org.uk.

Notes to the editors

1. About the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Policy Fellowships

As a national academy, the Royal Academy of Engineering provides progressive leadership for engineering and technology, and independent expert advice to government in the UK and beyond.

The Policy Fellowships programme is an intensive professional development programme that supports better evidence-based policymaking. It advances policymaking and policy through engineering perspectives and systems approaches.

2. About the Royal Academy of Engineering

The Royal Academy of Engineering is harnessing the power of engineering to build a sustainable society and an inclusive economy that works for everyone.

In collaboration with our Fellows and partners, we’re growing talent and developing skills for the future, driving innovation and building global partnerships, and influencing policy and engaging the public.