Prime minister unveils Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering18 November 2011

The Prime minster yesterday (17 November 2011) launched the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering – a new award aimed at celebrating advances in engineering from around the world that have made a real difference.

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 application of engineering.

It will recognise the best international talent and will be awarded every two years, with the first award due for presentation in the spring of 2013.

Launched at London's Science by the prime minister, with the deputy prime minister and the leader of the opposition in attendance, the prize will be run by an independently funded trust managed by Lord Browne, president of the Royal Academy of Engineering and a former CEO of BP.

"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," said prime minister David Cameron.

"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," he continued.

"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."

"Engineering underpins every aspect of our lives," commneted Lord Browne. "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."

Britain's biggest manufacturers are among contributors to the endowment fund – including BAE Systems, BP, GlaxoSmithKline, Jaguar Land Rover, Shell, Siemens, Tata Consultancy Services and Tata Steel.

Brian Tinham

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