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History of the Academy
1981–1986: Growing influence and activities
The Fellowship was
going from strength to strength. It was able
to take over the CEI's offices at 2 Little
Smith Street, Westminster. It had already
begun to establish its advisory role and
now, in line with the objectives set out for
his five-year term as President by Viscount
Caldecote KBE DSC DL FREng in 1981 on
succeeding Lord Hinton, The Fellowship was
to work to promote engineering excellence in
industry.
One priority was to improve the
links between industry and higher education,
and thus encourage both research and
engineering degree courses to become more
closely related to industry. It was to
foster this relationship, and to stimulate
more applied research, that the Fellowship
launched an industrial research fellowship
scheme in 1982 supported by the Wolfson
Foundation.
Meanwhile, the forging of links
with the SERC enabled The Fellowship
increasingly to influence research
strategies and to develop its own
activities. In 1983 it took over the
administration of the SERC's International
Visiting Fellowship scheme (later renamed
Engineering Secondments Overseas). This sent
outstanding young engineers on secondments
overseas for six to twelve months, to
broaden their experience and to learn about
new technological developments. A similar
scheme, to send promising young engineers on
secondment to Japan, had been set up in
1982, funded by the Department of Industry.
These successes underlined The Fellowship's
suitability to take a lead in
engineering-related research and training
programmes, the development of which
required further funding. The Fellowship
therefore approached the Government for
Grant-in-Aid to support its programmes, its
interdisciplinary and growing international
activities, and studies on national
engineering issues. It was successful and
Grant-in-Aid began in 1984.
The initial
grant was £150,000 a year. Although modest,
it underlined the extent to which The
Fellowship had become established.
Originally set up under the auspices of the CEI, it acquired its own Royal Charter in
1983, which clearly set out its objectives
as the promotion of excellence in
engineering through education, training,
innovation, research, development and design
and the provision of advice on matters
concerning the overall practice of
engineering.
The Grant-in-Aid facilitated a
steady expansion in The Fellowship's
activities, carefully tailored to further
the objectives set out in the Charter.
International contacts developed rapidly,
the most notable early example of this
coming in 1985, when The Fellowship hosted
the fifth convocation of the Council of
Academies of Engineering and Technological
Sciences in London.
The Fellowship began to
expand its advisory role. One innovation was
the Parliamentary Group for Engineering
Development, set up in 1986 as a forum for
expert briefings for parliamentarians on
engineering-related policy and legislation.
The Fellowship also suggested forward looks
at future technological issues and
requirements, leading in 1985 to a study for
the Department of the Environment on
abatement technologies for treating acidic
emissions.
The Fellowship was concerned that
it should not become over-dependent upon
Grant-in-Aid, but should seek funding from
industry and other sources. This ability to
demonstrate funding leverage and industrial
support for The Fellowship's activities
helped to encourage a steady increase in
Grant-in-Aid.
The first substantial
industrial funding came in 1984 with the
setting up of the Panasonic Trust by
Matsushita Electric, to celebrate ten years
of successful operation in Britain. This
continues to provide grants to assist
engineers in updating their knowledge and
skills to keep up with technical and safety
developments in the ever-changing field of
engineering. Over 500 engineers have
benefited.
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