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History of the Academy
2006 - 2011: Moving
engineering to the centre of society
Lord Browne of Madingley FREng
FRS, elected President in July 2006, had then been
Group Chief Executive of BP plc for more than a
decade. His global reputation was to prove
invaluable to the Academy.
Lord Browne made it his
mission "to move engineering to the centre of
society", In support, several grand challenges for
the world were identified where the engineering
contribution would be decisive: climate change and
energy, poverty reduction and the improvement of
health and well-being.
The Academy could not do this
alone; it would need to work with the wider
engineering profession. However, engineering in the
UK had long been characterised by multiple
institutions and diffuse impact. Lord Browne set out
to provide national leadership for engineering
together with like-minded bodies.
In an era of
considerable growth for the Academy, the global
financial crisis of 2007/8 provided a constant
backdrop. One valuable outcome was a renewed
appreciation of the importance of engineering in a
rebalanced economy.
Real impetus resulted from a
year-long Parliamentary inquiry into engineering. In
its influential report (2009), the Select Committee
for Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills
concluded that engineering had the potential to
transform the UK economy and to support recovery
from the global recession. It also recommended that
future decisions on critical issues needed to have
engineers at the heart of policymaking.
A key
recommendation was that Government engagement with
engineering should begin with the Academy which
would coordinate and lead the efforts of the
professional engineering community.
The Academy now
became the host for two significant initiatives
undertaken with the engineering profession:
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Education for Engineering (E4E) was launched in 2009
to provide Government with advice on all aspects of
education and, from the start, had real impact. An
alliance of engineering institutions, hosted by the
Academy, E4E sought to influence education policy
relevant to the formation of engineers and
technicians. Its first area of focus was on Further
Education (FE).
-
Engineering the Future, was also
launched in 2009 to make a unified contribution to
policy with an engineering dimension while also
promoting engineering to the wider public. Reports
commissioned by government in its first two years
included major work on
Global Water Security,
Infrastructure, Engineering and Climate Change
Adaptation and
Nuclear Lessons Learned. Its
activities also included advice to Parliamentary
enquiries, an engineering presence at party
conferences and briefings to parliamentary
candidates.
The Academy's own activities in
education expanded rapidly. While continuing to
support high achievers at undergraduate and graduate
levels, through activities such as
Engineering
Leadership Awards, the net was now spread more
widely with the aim of inspiring young people from
all backgrounds with the excitement of engineering.
The London Engineering Project (LEP), aiming to
widen participation from under-represented groups,
began in earnest in 2006 and embraced schools in the
London Borough of Lambeth and Southwark and some
neighbouring boroughs. This went on to prompt
similar activities in Barrow-in-Furness (2008) and
then nationally.
The Academy also supported the
creation of the new
Technician Council, designed to
elevate the status and recognition of technicians,
and became its host in 2010.
Influential reports
Two
education reports from the Academy had significant
impact.
Educating Engineers for the 21st Century
(2007) was the result of investigations led by
Professor Julia King CBE FREng. This considered the
changes required in the engineering education
curriculum to create professional engineers with the
skills they would need for the new century. Well
received, it inspired a raft of subsequent activity.
One consequence was a further report,
Graduate Engineers for Industry (2010), produced under the
chairmanship of Professor Sir William Wakeham FREng.
This pointed to experience-led learning as the key
aspiration for engineering degrees in the future.
On
the wider policy front, examples from a multiplicity
of Academy studies and reports completed in this
period included:
Dilemmas of Privacy and
Surveillance;
A Statement of Ethical Principles;
studies and events on
Philosophy of Engineering;
Carbon emissions Targets, the Severn Barrage,
Engineering and IT, Nuclear Skills and Synthetic Biology, and
Generating the Future: UK energy systems fit for 2050 and
Charged with Potential.
This was accompanied, from 2008, by an ambitious new
public affairs and communications programme.
The
Academy heightened its public profile in 2008 with
the launch of www.raengtv allowing global access to
its lectures and major events. Its quarterly
magazine Ingenia also tripled its circulation and
placed its articles on a new website as a free
online engineering resource.
Work on policy went
hand in hand throughout this period with action on
public engagement, aided by the Academy's new
Ingenious scheme. The Academy took a lead role at
the Cheltenham Science Festival and was, from its
beginning in 2009, a strong supporter of the Big
Bang Fair.
Meanwhile, the Academy's portfolio of
support for research, training and education was
consolidated. Its group of more than a hundred 100
Visiting Professors expanded and diversified, based
on experience-led teaching at undergraduate level.
New schemes were introduced:
Distinguished Visiting
Fellowships;
Research Chairs in Emerging Technology;
and
Research Exchanges with China and India. The
Academy also grew its existing programme of support
for research chairs and fellowships.
The
government's 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review
proved valuable for the Academy with an overall
increase in Grant in Aid of 5% per annum for the
period to 2010/11. Grant in Aid support increased to
£12.826 millions. However, worldwide financial
turmoil influenced the next Review, in 2010.
Fortunately, the coalition government recognised the
value of engineering to the economy and reflected
this is in a reduced but relatively good settlement
for the Academy and its peer organisations,
entailing a 3% cash reduction over the following
four years.
The Academy's international profile as a
national academy with a global outlook was
heightened during Lord Browne's presidency. There
were several new ventures undertaken in this period:
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Energy was the subject of several international
events and visits. In 2008 The Academy initiated and
hosted the first annual conference of Euro-CASE,
involving all European national academies of
engineering. The focus was the challenge of meeting
the European Union's 2020 renewable energy targets.
Energy was the theme of further meetings with
academies in China and India.
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In 2010
The Africa-UK Engineering for Development Partnership
was launched. This major enterprise brought together
the engineering communities in sub-Saharan Africa
and the UK in a consortium led by the Africa
Engineers Forum, the Academy and the Institution of
Civil Engineers.
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In 2010 the Academy joined with
the science and engineering academies of China, the
US and the UK for the first of a series of major
symposia in an important new technology, synthetic
biology. The Academy's original policy work in this
area had been the catalyst.
Throughout these years
Professor Dame Wendy Hall FREng FRS led for the
Academy in the promotion of diversity in
engineering. Work began with a radical review of all
the Academy's own policies with the objective of
ensuring that all barriers to under-represented
groups in engineering were removed. This led to the
Academy gaining funds under CSR 2010 to allow wider
engagement on diversity with the engineering
profession and industry
Recognising excellence
In
2010 the Academy renamed its Public Promotion of
Engineering Medal the
Rooke Medal, in honour of
esteemed past President Sir Denis Rooke OM CBE FREng
FRS, who died in 2008.
By 2011 the
Academy's Annual
Awards Dinner had become a highly popular event held
at prestigious locations in London. No less
importantly, engineering industry had increasingly
come to recognise the value of supporting this and
other Academy events.
Forum for Engineering
In 2007
the Academy moved to 3 Carlton House Terrace,
alongside the other national academies. This was to
have a galvanising effect on the Academy which was
keen to maximize the potential of its new facility.
Led by Sir John Parker FREng, a development campaign
was designed to promote the Academy as a
Forum for Engineering and as a valuable partner for
engineering industry. This attracted keen interest
and substantial funds. By mid-2011 the Academy was
ready to start major building works to transform its
public facilities.
Separately, the campaign set out
to establish an Education and Engagement Endowment
Fund aimed at attracting more young people to
engineering. This greatly aided the Academy's
engagement with engineering industry.
As Lord
Browne's presidency drew to a close the Academy was
now well equipped to take on extra responsibility.
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