Clock ticking to join UK engineering greats with MacRobert Award win

Now in its 54^th year, the Royal Academy of Engineering accolade comes with a £50,000 award for the winner. However, would-be entrants have just until Monday 31 January at 5pm to enter for this year.

Many of the best known brands have featured in its five decade-plus roll call of honour, including Rolls-Royce, Jaguar Land Rover, mini-computer pioneers Raspberry Pi and structural engineering leaders Arup and Buro Happold.

Innovation however remains key, with last year’s gold medal going to Quanta Dialysis Technologies for a portable dialysis machine, inspired by fast-food drinks dispenser design.

Chair of the judging panel Professor Sir Richard Friend explained that a combination of imagination and proven scalability was needed to win.

“The MacRobert Award is for innovation in engineering and we really want to see that innovation. Something that you didn’t expect to see but when you do it makes you think ‘my goodness that is clever’. There is no particular formula for a winning product. But when you see it, you know it," he explained. 

But, the chair added, any innovation needed to be commercially successful also, pointing out that previous winners spanned emerging companies to large multinational businesses.  

“Common to all winners is the quality of the team. The award is for a team and they need to work together in a special way. The diversity of groups is the magic,” explained Friend.

“You need disparate skills and diversity of thought to understand how to manufacture, how to find who the customers really are and what they want to buy.”  

To enter the award click here. 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. For further information, see the video below.