Academy in the Media

• E&T online: Bacteria detector work by UWE professor wins award
  7 May 2013
  Prof Janice Kiely from the University of the West of England has been given the Engineering Enterprise Fellowship by the Royal Academy of Engineering. She and four other winners have each been handed an award and will also be given up to £85,000 from the body.

• BBC News: Support to commercialise engineering innovation
  2 May 2013
  Innovators at four UK universities have been awarded £85,000 to develop spin-off businesses from their research. The Royal Academy of Engineering has awarded five Enterprise Fellowships, part of the Academy’s Enterprise Hub that goes live today.

• Telegraph online: The fracking debate
  1 May 2013
  The green spin of environmental activists has skewed the fracking debate. Shale gas could be great news for Britain, but its opponents insist on grotesque exaggeration.

• BBC Radio 4: The Academy's Enterprise Hub discussed on the Today programme (2hr 42mins)
  29 April 2013
  Sir Robin Saxby talks about the setting up of the Academy's Enterprise Hub.

• UK ramps up efforts to support high-growth tech companies
  26 April 2013
  Efforts are ramping up in both the public and private sector to enable high-growth businesses in the UK to scale rapidly and reach their full potential.

• Professional Engineering: Academy offers help to enterprising small firms
  26 April 2013
  The Royal Academy of Engineering will launch its Enterprise Hub next week. The hub will see fellows of the academy mentor engineering start-up firms to help them commercialise new technology.

• FT online: Cable rejects science spending target
  23 April 2013
  Vince Cable, business secretary, has refused to commit to a target of spending on science as a proportion of gross domestic product, after four major science and engineering institutions called for the UK to raise funding to boost economic growth. The presidents of four national academies – the Academy of Medical Sciences, the Royal Society, the British Academy and the Royal Academy of Engineering – called on the government to guarantee science spending for the next 10 years.

• The Telegraph online: Research, innovation and productive engineering are the only foundations of economic growth
  23 April 2013
  The state of the nation is no more and no less than a function of what its people create writes Lord Browne, immediate Past President of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

• BBC News: Long term investment in research innovation and skills needed
  22 April 2013
  The Royal Society, the British Academy, the Academy of Medical Sciences and the Royal Academy of Engineering have released a joint statement today calling for the government to do more to support science and innovation and not to take the UK's position as a world leader in science for granted.

• E&T: Busking, boating and broadcasting to engage public
  22 April 2013
  Engineers will have the opportunity to become buskers, radio presenters and barge drivers in an effort to engage the public. The Royal Academy of Engineering’s public engagement grant scheme, Ingenious, will fund 24 new projects to increase awareness of engineering’s role in society.

• BBC News: Who, what, why: Why build a ship tunnel?
  19 April 2013
  The Norwegian government has backed an ambitious plan to create the world's first ship tunnel. "It isn't an unheard of challenge, it involves building a cofferdam [a watertight enclosure] at either end to keep the water out until excavation is complete," explains Robert Benaim, Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

• Huffington Post: Sun Unleashes Largest Solar Flare Of The Year
  15 April 2013
  The last recorded solar superstorm was in 1859, when the 'Carrington event' caused visible auroras around the world, of a type which are normally just seen at the poles. Earlier this year the Royal Academy of Engineering said another storm of this scale was "inevitable", and warned that aspects of the UK's modern infrastructure were not all prepared to cope.

• Frog-like robot will help surgeons with keyhole surgery
  15 April 2013
  Researchers at the University of Leeds are using the feet of tree frogs as a model for a tiny robot designed to crawl inside patients’ bodies during keyhole surgery. Lead researcher Professor Anne Neville, Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies at the University of Leeds, said: “Tree frogs have hexagonal patterned channels on their feet that when in contact with a wet surface build capillary bridges, and hence an adhesion force.

• Winners of inaugural contest focus on the engineering's promise and challenges
  9 April 2013
  In conjunction with the first Global Grand Challenges Summit, which the Royal Academy of Engineering and the US National Academy of Engineering along with the Chinese Academy of Engineering held in mid-March in London, the NAE and RAE invited 18–27 year olds to submit a two-minute-or-less video that highlights engineering's importance and how engineers tackle global challenges

• Guardian online: The science and art of effective advice
  5 April 2013
  ‘…Dialogue with the national academies has also reached a new level. Last year's joint report by the Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering on the risks associated with hydraulic fracturing to access shale gas illustrates how a relatively rapid response by the academies to a well posed question can directly inform government decision-making. …’

• Elite Engineering Programme champion visits 10 Downing Street
  3 April 2013
  The Elite Engineering Programme aims to boost the number of talented young people from disadvantaged backgrounds who consider pursuing careers in engineering – and reignite the UK’s status as a world leader in engineering. The programme was launched to businesses at the end of January by a number of organisations, including the Royal Academy of Engineering.

• Africa needs more skilled engineers, says research
  3 April 2013
  “Sufficient engineering capacity is essential to the economic and social development of any country. It is a basic requirement for the provision of infrastructure that enables better healthcare, access to education and the development of an attractive environment for foreign investment. It is a key driver for innovation and growth.” This is according to a recent study that looks at the engineering capacity needs in sub-Saharan Africa, conducted by the Royal Academy of Engineering and headed by Holly Wright, the Academy’s international policy advisor for Africa.

• Sunday Times : Your country needs you to engineer a way out of this disaster, Isambarda
  26 March 2013
  Would you encourage your daughter to become an engineer? The chances are, no matter how liberal, pro-feminist, modern and emancipated you are, you wouldn’t.

• The Engineer: Join the innovation debate
  26 March 2013
  The Queen Elizabeth Prize which went to the inventors of the internet and the world wide web - has certainly triggered plenty of discussion within the engineering and scientific communities, not least on the perennial subject of how to boost the profile of engineering…

• Telegraph online: Internet team scoops Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering award for innovators
  19 March 2013
  Sir Tim Berners-Lee and four other pioneers of the internet were announced as the first winners of the £1m Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering in acknowledgement of their work, which has connected the world and brought to the fingertips of two billion people almost the entire span of human learning.

• Guardian online: Internet pioneers are first winners of £1m engineering prize
  19 March 2013
  Louis Pouzin was honoured on Monday as one of five winners of the first £1m Queen Elizabeth prize for engineering, for their "seminal contributions to the protocols (or standards) that together make up the fundamental architecture of the internet.

• BBC News: Berners-Lee wins engineering prize for world wide web
  19 March 2013
  Sir Tim Berners-Lee is among those who have won the first Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering.The £1m award was made in recognition of his contribution to the development of the world wide web.

• Express online: Bill Gates talks at Global Grand Challenges summit
  14 March 2013
  Speaking at the Royal Academy of Engineering's Global Grand Challenges Summit yesterday, Mr Gates – who has pledged to give away half of his billion-dollar fortune to charity – said initiatives for poor people are being abandoned in order to prioritise more marketable ventures.

• The Engineer: Maths, music and inspiration: the grand challenge of learning
  14 March 2013
  It’s a big week for science and technology in London, with the Technology Strategy Board’s InnovateUK event; the Big Bang Fair; and the Global Grand Challenge Summit, which I attended yesterday. Organised by the Royal Academy of Engineering and its American and Chinese counterparts, the Summit provided a platform for technologists at the cutting edge of several new sectors, along with the people whose task it is to make sure that engineers are working in the best possible way to meet the challenges of the coming decades.

• Wired.co.uk: Digital fabrication is so much more than 3D printing
  14 March 2013
  There is too much coverage in the press about the wonders of 3D printing and it's a distraction from the real revolution, argues Neil Gershenfeld, the head of MIT's Centre for Bits and Atoms. "The coverage of 3D printing is a bit like the coverage of microwave ovens in the 50s. Microwaves are useful for some things, but they didn't replace the rest of your kitchen," he said, speaking at the Royal Academy of Engineering's Grand Challenges summit.

• Professional Engineering: Researchers win £45m to tackle global challenges
  13 March 2013
  More than £45 million of funding for innovative engineering projects that could help to address some of the world’s major challenges has been announced by science minister David Willetts.

• Telegraph online: Britain’s engineers plan for £1m prize
  11 March 2013
  As Britain’s policymakers warn that the economy’s future growth is dependent on its ability to make and export goods and services, the industry is poised to celebrate the best in global engineering and innovation. For the first time on March 18, the Queen Elizabeth Price for Engineering will be awarded to a person, or a team of people, responsible for a ground-breaking innovation in engineering which has benefited the public on a global level.

• Electronics Weekly: UK's future depends on engineers
  8 March 2013
  Engineers will determine the future economic status of Britain, says Lord John Browne, former BP CEO. “I do believe engineering is the only way to get growth in any economy,” says Browne, a past president of the Royal Academy of Engineering which has produced a report saying Britain needs 1.25m science, engineering and technology professionals and technicians by 2020.

• E&T online: £47m investment in engineering research announced
  8 March 2013
  The government’s science minister will announce £47m of investment in leading engineering research projects today. David Willetts, Minister for Universities and Science, will announce the funding at the first Global Grand Challenges Summit (GGCS), organised by the Royal Academy of Engineering and its American and Chinese counterparts, in London this afternoon.

• BBC News: Revamp of vocational courses unveiled
  7 March 2013
  Teenagers in England are to be offered the chance to take new courses in engineering and construction as part of an overhaul of vocational education. In November, Chancellor George Osborne said the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE), backed by the DfE, would work with employers to redesign the main part of the engineering diploma and turn it into four qualifications, each equivalent to one GCSE

• Eminent academic takes up new Low Carbon Materials Chair
  7 March 2013
  Professor Sridhar Seetharaman has this week taken up the new post of Professor of Low Carbon Materials Technology at WMG, an academic department at the University of Warwick in the UK. The new Chair is jointly sponsored by Tata Steel and the Royal Academy of Engineering.

• Professional Engineering: Funding boost for aerospace skills
  6 March 2013
  A £6 million pot of cash is available to recruit talented engineers who want to build careers in the aerospace sector. The money will fund 500 ambitious employees and new graduates, giving them financial assistance to study masters-level degrees in aerospace engineering. The initiative, which is being run by the Royal Academy of Engineering in collaboration with the Royal Aeronautical Society, is aimed at helping the sector to develop the skills it needs to compete globally.

• Times letter: Gove has put back teaching of D&T
  13 February 2013
  Sir James Dyson is right (“Grilling tomatoes won’t train new engineers”, Opinion, Feb 11). The Government neglects design and technology (D&T) at its peril. D&T represents the only meaningful technical experience that most pupils get in school between the ages of 5 and 14, and it is crucial that the subject is made relevant to modern industry.

• Times online: Invest in big projects now or the chance will be gone
  11 February 2013
  The Government is missing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to invest in big construction projects and risks letting national infrastructure wither through underspending, one of Britain’s foremost industrialists has warned. Sir John Parker, the president of the Royal Academy of Engineering, is also calling for a resurrection of the Infrastructure Planning Commission, a short-lived innovation of the previous Labour administration that was scrapped by the coalition.

• BBC online: UK 'can cope with solar superstorm'
  7 February 2013
  If a solar superstorm struck the Earth, the effects on the UK would be "challenging but not cataclysmic", says a major report.An expert panel for the Royal Academy of Engineering assessed the readiness of Britain to handle a huge outburst of radiation and particles from the Sun.

• Channel 4: Plan for solar superstorm or expect chaos, report warns
  7 February 2013
  A solar superstorm could trigger black-outs, knock out satellites, and disrupt aircraft and shipping, says a report - and the UK needs a new body to brace itself against the event. Government should set up a new quango to limit the risks and plan for the disruption caused by a solar storm according to a new report from the Royal Academy of Engineering.

• Mail online: Space team to set up body to protect Britain from once-in-a-century solar superstorm
  7 February 2013
  A new body of space experts is needed to help protect Britain from a once-in-a-century solar superstorm, scientists warned today. The Royal Academy of Engineering has said that the massive radiation blast is inevitable and that the Government should set up a UK Space Weather Board

• Professional Engineering: University scholarships for disadvantaged students
  6 February 2013
  Talented youngsters from disadvantaged backgrounds are to be funded through engineering degrees with scholarships as part of a multi-million pound cross-industry package of support. The Elite Engineering Programme (EEP), worth £6.5 million over the next five years, will encourage exceptional students from state schools who might otherwise be put off careers in engineering by high tuition fees.

• New York Times: Shortage of Engineers a Strain on Britain's Economy
  4 February 2013
  In 2010, British manufacturing output accounted for only 2.3 percent of the global total. Among big Western economies, that trails even the relatively weak total of France, which has a 2.6% share in global manufacturing, and is far behind Germany’s 6% and the United States’ 18.2%, according to statistics compiled by the British Parliament. The engineering community in Britain complains about the better support the German government gives to people in the field. “You only have to go to Germany to see how revered engineering and industry are,” said Sir John Parker, president of the Royal Academy of Engineering

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