RAE Annual review - Cover - Royal Academy of Engineering

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President’s review Sir John Parker with pupils from St Saviour’s and St Olave’s School in Southwark, South London where he gave an inspirational talk to the girls about engineering. The school was involved in the Academy’s London Engineering Project between 2007-2010 The 35th anniversary year of the Academy saw some of our Fellowship’s long-held aspirations become reality. Under Lord Browne’s focused and determined leadership as President from 2006 to 2011, the Academy has developed its leadership role, increased its contribution to national policy, strengthened its support for researchers and entrepreneurs, deepened its international relationships, raised its profile with the public and opinion leaders and reached out to more young people than ever before. Lord Browne was also critical in securing the lease to the Academy’s Carlton House Terrace premises in 2006 which has undergone significant renovations over the last year. Another engineering landmark took place in the last year: working in partnership with the government, the Academy launched the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering – a £1 million international prize. My thanks to Lord Browne are already on record but it would be remiss of me not to repeat here the appreciation and gratitude of the Fellowship for his achievements and my pledge to build on his legacy to the Academy and to engineering. Fellows Our efforts to encourage a broader-based Fellowship that is more representative of the society we serve is bearing fruit, with more women engineers elected to the Fellowship and a better balance of the strengths of engineering across both industry and academia. I have been travelling around the UK meeting as many of our Fellows as possible where they live and work to hear their views first hand on how our Academy can develop for the future. Friends and supporters Our progress depends on partnership with friends and supporters who share our ambitions for the Academy and our aspirations for engineering. As President and, formerly, as the chair of the Development Campaign Board, I want to take this opportunity to thank my Board members, our Fellows and the many other supporters who have contributed so magnificently to the Academy’s fundraising efforts. Our thriving programme of work in education is one important beneficiary of major support from Fellows, from industry, charitable foundations and other generous contributors. Through a range of initiatives, we are helping shape national education policy; supporting teaching in schools, colleges and universities; promoting technical skills and seeking to inspire and engage young people. Our aim is to create opportunities for many more young people so that they can enjoy fulfilling engineering careers and to help create the skilled workforce that the nation needs for a rebalanced economy. Our fundraising campaign has also enabled the extensive refurbishment of the Academy’s premises. The building has become truly fit for purpose with new public spaces and superb facilities, made possible through the generosity of friends and supporters who share our vision of a Forum for engineering in the UK. We now have a worthy home in which the whole engineering family can come together, alongside the public and policymakers, to tackle the critical issues we face. We are honoured that our Senior Fellow has given his permission to name the building Prince Philip House. Leadership As a national academy, a great strength is that we span all sectors of engineering and are rooted in the professional engineering institutions of the UK. Over the year, we have developed our leadership role by harnessing the strengths across the profession, with more of our policy and communications activities being undertaken jointly with partners across engineering. The Academy’s role as a focal point for engineering advice has gained considerable traction with government, with an increased number of requests for the expertise of Fellows to address issues, inform discussion, support projects and serve on government committees, task groups and review bodies. With our sister national academies, we have worked to improve communications and collaboration on policy so that we can better fulfil our duties to the nation. Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering Today, the world needs engineering innovation as much if not more than ever before. The launch of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering will not only recognise outstanding engineering achievement but will illuminate the influence and impact of engineering on the world to a much wider audience. The launch of the prize in November 2011 was supported by all three main political parties – a rare occurrence and a very public acknowledgment that engineering underpins every aspect of society and needs to be nurtured, recognised and celebrated. The framework for the prize has now been established, the distinguished international judging panel appointed under the chairmanship of an Academy Past President, Lord Broers, and the coming year will see the first prize winner announced in May 2013. The search for the winning entry will provide an excellent platform from which to promote the story of engineering in a uniquely inspiring way. I am delighted to be a trustee for the Prize, under the chairmanship of Lord Browne. Supporting national capacity In adopting the new strategic plan, the Academy’s Council set the number one priority as support for economic growth. An important element of this is our research programme. With support from the private sector and other third parties, we make a real contribution to the engineering performance of the nation by enabling leading-edge researchers to develop centres of excellence and provide opportunities for earlier career researchers to establish themselves at the highest level. Despite the current challenging economic climate, these schemes have continued to attract strong investment from industry. We now have 40 Research Chairs and Senior Research Fellows and 54 Research Fellows in post. The new Engineering Enterprise Fellowships were awarded for the first time and offer a brilliant package of support for outstanding innovators in UK universities, allowing researchers to spend 12 months developing the commercial potential of their research while benefiting from business training and mentoring from Academy Fellows with a track record of successful innovation. Finally I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Fellows who sit on our Council and committees for the sterling work they have done to lead, shape, undertake and promote the Academy’s agenda over the past year. The senior Vice President, Professor Sir William Wakeham, has provided exceptional support and leadership. Our CEO, Philip Greenish and his staff team, continue to serve the Academy with professionalism, energy and enthusiasm. Together, we are committed to ensuring the Academy makes a very significant contribution to engineering at this critical time, supporting the innovation, skills and policy framework that the nation needs. Sir John Parker FREng President 2 President’s review 3
Chief Executive’s foreword T he last year has been one of dramatic development for the Academy – it has also presented a number of opportunities for engineering. In 2011, the Council adopted a new strategic plan and this annual review reports our activities for the year against each of the five strategic objectives within it: to drive faster and more balanced economic growth; to foster better education and skills; to lead the profession; to promote engineering at the heart of society; and to build organisational capacity. The plan, which is short and focused, also sets out the values, purpose, vision and role of the Academy. The Fellowship The lifeblood of the Academy is its Fellowship and the Council has taken firm steps to broaden the diversity and the range of backgrounds and sectors from which talented engineers are nominated for Fellowship. This year, 50 UK Fellows, six International Fellows and three Honorary Fellows were elected, almost the number permitted by Charter and Statute. Nine of the new intake of Fellows are women – the highest number of women elected in one year in the Academy’s history. The sheer range of experience and breadth of expertise of our Fellowship create a strong base for the Academy’s work. It ensures that we are able to apply our Fellows’ formidable skills to a very wide spectrum of national and international challenges and to provide the leadership expected of a national academy in all aspects of engineering. We have improved arrangements in place to engage better with our new Fellows so that they have every opportunity to play an active part in the life of their Academy in the year that they are elected. Resources The Academy’s £12.5 million grant from the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills may be a tiny proportion of the government’s £4.5 billion annual science and research budget but it provides the core resource for the organisation. For every £1 of public money, the Academy raises a further £2.85 from the private or third sector. This is lower than last year’s equivalent total of £3.15, which is symptomatic of the current economic climate, but reflects in simple financial terms the value that the Academy can add. With our government grant set at a fixed level for four years without allowance for inflation, we are responding by increasing our efforts to find alternative sources of income. With the successful completion of the 3 Carlton House Terrace building project appeal, the Council has now agreed a new target for income generation from non-public sources. This is critical if the Academy is to continue its forward momentum. We also continue to explore creative new ways of working: we have created new partnerships, we are sharing some back office functions with sister national academies and we have tightened our internal management. Forum for engineering project Against this challenging background, we were immensely grateful for the generosity of our Fellows and many supporters that allowed us to embark on a major capital building programme to transform our Grade 1 listed building. The project was designed and led by Stefanie Fischer of architects Burrell Foley Fischer and was fully funded before work began. Building work started in July 2011 and completed in April 2012. Knight Harwood was the lead contractor, chosen because of its outstanding track record in delivering challenging refurbishment works in listed buildings. This major undertaking involved the removal of internal walls, the installation of two new lifts and the complete refurbishment of the ground and first floor spaces and the basement mezzanine. In addition, a new accessible entrance was created for all visitors. A sinuous bridge, donated by Babcock International and built by their Rosyth apprentices, is set in a small garden which marks our building apart from its neighbours in Carlton House Terrace. My thanks are due to the 3 Carlton House Terrace Project Committee, led by Dr Paul Golby. The project was supported and supervised by Fellows with expertise in all the relevant fields who ensured that it was completed on time, to budget and to a very high standard. I must also pay tribute to the Academy staff who continued to work in the building throughout the project, enduring noise, dirt and disruption with good humour and grace. I believe the project to create the physical infrastructure for the Forum for engineering has been an outstanding success. International activities The Academy’s domestic activities are complemented by a strong programme of international outreach. The Academy works with partner academies and institutions across the world to strengthen its own and the UK’s capability and raise the profile of engineering nationally and internationally. Activities this year have included a six-academy series of symposia with the Royal Society and the national science and engineering academies in the US and China on the important new field of synthetic biology. We have also held joint initiatives on energy storage and emerging technologies with China, a collaboration with several European academies to provide innovation advice to the EU Commission, and a capacity building programme for engineering in Africa. Engineering leadership Nurturing, developing and exercising engineering leadership is central to the Academy’s purpose. Our role in bringing together the professional institutions and other key organisations to share thinking on the serious issues of the day and to create common positions on national policy issues is now well established and effective. Our new Forum for engineering will enable us to draw our profession together in a different way to raise the profile and presence of engineering as part of national life. Our Fellowship will shape, lead and drive this important new development in the Academy’s life. We provide a range of grants, bursaries and personal development opportunities for students and early- to mid-career engineers to help them develop as leaders of the future. Our awards are intended to celebrate great engineers and provide an opportunity for future generations to reach the pinnacle of their careers. I am delighted that the Academy is now the custodian of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering with excellent progress being made on this important initiative. Leadership of the Academy is critical to our success: the year saw the completion of Lord Browne’s term of office as President and his succession by Sir John Parker. The role of the President is hugely important in setting the strategic agenda, leading Academy meetings and events and representing the Academy and its Fellowship at the very highest levels. It is extremely time-consuming and I am very grateful indeed to Lord Browne and Sir John, both of whom have many other important roles, for their visionary yet practical leadership and their support to the executive team. My staff team and I are also indebted to the Council and the standing committees for leading our work, of which we are all immensely proud. Philip Greenish CBE Chief Executive 4 Chief Executive’s foreword 5
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RAE Annual review - Cover - Royal Academy of Engineering

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