Engineering prize to be worth £1m
The Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering is a new global award which celebrates truly outstanding advances in engineering that have created significant benefit to humanity.
The £1 million Prize will be awarded in the name of Her Majesty The Queen to an individual or team of up to three people, of any nationality, directly responsible for advancing the positive application of engineering knowledge.
The Prize will recognise and celebrate the best – and also serve to illuminate the sheer excitement of modern engineering.
The Prize will be international and will be awarded biennially, the first being presented in Spring 2013.
The Prize is the result of a growing realisation within political, business and engineering circles of the need for a pioneering initiative based in the UK to focus attention on engineering worldwide.
The Prize has the strong support of both Government and Opposition leaders in the UK, is generously supported by a range of top engineering companies and is warmly welcomed by the whole of the UK engineering community.
The Prize will recognise and celebrate the best and also serve to illuminate the sheer excitement of modern engineering. It will provide an unparalleled opportunity to demonstrate how engineers and engineering are making a real difference across the world.
Message from The Prime Minister, Rt Hon David Cameron MP
“I am delighted that the Queen has put her name to this prestigious prize, which I hope will carry the same stature as the Nobel Prizes and I want to thank the Royal Academy of Engineering and the prize sponsors for making this happen."
“For too long Britain's economy has been over-reliant on consumer debt and financial services. We want to rebalance the economy so that Britain makes things again - high-skilled high-value manufacturing and engineering should be a central part of our long term future. I hope this prize will go some way to inspire and excite young people about engineering, so that they dream of becoming engineers as they once did in the age of Stephenson and Brunel.”
Message from The Deputy Prime Minister, Rt Hon Nick Clegg MP
"This Prize flies in the face of the myth that engineering is a part of Britain's past. It's true that we have a proud record - a nation historically at the forefront of scientific breakthroughs and the vanguard of design. But engineering is just as much a part of our future - at the heart of a new economy driven by invention and innovation. The Queen Elizabeth Prize will draw the eyes of the engineering world to Britain. We are bringing engineering home."
Message from The Leader of the Opposition, Rt Hon Ed Miliband MP
“Britain has been home to some of the world’s great engineering feats, from the Iron Bridge in Telford to British involvement in mapping the human genome. But we now face huge global challenges in the future ranging from climate change and famine to an ageing population in the west. Just as engineering has helped us meet the big challenges in the past, it will be engineering that helps us meet these new challenges.”
Message from Lord Browne, Chair of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering Foundation
“Engineering underpins every aspect of our lives. As the bridge between scientific discovery and commercial application, engineering feeds and clothes us, and enables us to work, travel and communicate. But too often the engineers behind the most brilliant innovations remain hidden. The Queen Elizabeth Prize aims to change that. It will celebrate, on an international scale, the very best engineering in the world. I believe that this prize will inspire the public, especially young people, with a sense of the excitement and the importance of engineering.”
Content posted from RAEng Website: http://www.raeng.org.uk/prizes/qeprize/
See also: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15756113
