Queen Elizabeth Prize launches search for next winner of £500,000 award
19 May 2021
Applications have opened for the next a competition for one of the most presitigious and lucrative engineering awards, the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering (QEPrize).
Worth £500,000 to the winner, the prize may be shared by up to five individuals collaborating under a single nomination.
It honours recipients who are deemed personally responsible for groundbreaking innovations in engineering, of global benefit to humanity. Previous winners have included internet and GPS creators.
The nominations deadline is 23:59 on 31 July 2021, with the winner to be announced on 1 February 2022. Self-nominations and posthumous nomination are not eligible.
All nominations will be assessed by an independent international judging panel comprised of world-leading experts in their respective fields.
Chair of the QEPrize Judging Panel Professor Dame Lynn Gladden said that recognising diversity would be a key aim this year.
“We want to recognise the diversity of today’s global engineering world. It is a diversity not only of individual engineers, but also of a breadth of ideas, creativity and collaboration which drive engineering forward,” she commented.
“We encourage and welcome nominations from around the world which truly showcase the very best of contemporary engineering.”
Chairman of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering Foundation, Lord Browne of Madingley, added that the global pandemic had demonstrated how rapidly the work of engineers could have a demonstrable impact.
“As the nature of engineering and society’s expectations of engineering continue to evolve, so too does the QEPrize, he stated.
“Our move to an annual award reflects this pace of change. It will enable us to celebrate the pinnacle of engineering achievement, and to honour more engineers whose work improves the lives of so many people around the world.”
This year has a particular significance for the QEPrize. Since its inception in 2013, it has always been a biennial award but it was announced in 2021 that it will in future become an annual event.
All but one of its previous winning nominations have been joint awards. Tim Berners-Lee was one of five recipients of the inaugural 2013 prize for creation of the internet and worldwide web.
In 2015 American Robert Langer became the QEPrize's only solo winner for the development of controlled release large molecule drug delivery.
Since then the winners have been joint awards for digital imaging sensors (2017), GPS (2019) and LED lighting (2021).
Photo: Guest of honour Prince Charles congratulates Jack Jiang, 2019 winner of the QEP Prize's regular Create the Trophy competition for young 3D designers
