The countdown is on! There are just three weeks left for companies to enter this year’s MacRobert Award, the longest running and most prestigious annual prize for UK engineering innovation.
First awarded in 1969, the MacRobert Award is presented to a team that has developed an outstanding engineering or technological innovation that has proven commerciality and delivers tangible societal benefit. The winning team receives a £50,000 cash prize, a gold medal, national publicity and an exclusive weekend stay at Douneside House in the heart of the MacRobert estate in Aberdeenshire.
The MacRobert Award is open to engineering teams of all types and sizes, with previous winners ranging from Google DeepMind and Rolls-Royce to mini-computer pioneers Raspberry Pi and medtech marvels Quanta Dialysis Technologies and Touch Bionics.
Previous winners show that it’s not just industry goliaths that generate game-changing innovations. Engineering innovations developed by SMEs, startups and university spinouts are also crucial to driving economic growth and can help to benefit society.
OrganOx won the 2025 MacRobert Award for its life-saving metra® device that maintains livers and kidneys in a functioning state outside the body for at least twice as long as conventional cold preservation techniques. This innovative system is already supporting more organ transplants and helping to cut waiting lists. In August 2025, shortly after winning the MacRobert Award, OrganOx was acquired by Terumo, a Japanese multinational biomedical company, for a record $1.5 billion.
Dr Alison Vincent CBE FREng, Chair of the MacRobert Award judging panel, says: “So many innovations with the potential to change the world are produced here in the UK, yet too often the engineers behind them don’t get the recognition they deserve. That’s why the MacRobert Award is so important. It provides a platform to celebrate their achievements in delivering innovative projects that are commercially successful and also have a positive societal impact.
“From aerospace to algorithms, medtech to materials and software to structures, the MacRobert Award celebrates engineering innovation wherever it is found. We accept applications for innovations across all of engineering and technology, and we want to hear from you!”
The deadline for entries for the 2026 MacRobert Award is 5pm on Saturday 31 January 2026 and the winner will be announced at the Royal Academy of Engineering Awards Dinner in London in July 2026. To enter the award, visit: https://macrobertaward.raeng.org.uk/about-the-award/how-to-apply
The Organox team, winners of the 2025 MacRobert Award.
Notes for editors
- First presented in 1969, the MacRobert Award is widely regarded as the most coveted in the industry, honouring the winning organisation with a gold medal and the team members with a cash prize of £50,000., The award is presented and run by the Royal Academy of Engineering, with support from its founder, The MacRobert Trust, and the Worshipful Company of Engineers.
- The Royal Academy of Engineering creates and leads a community of outstanding experts and innovators to engineer better lives. As a charity and a Fellowship, we deliver public benefit from excellence in engineering and technology and convene leading businesspeople, entrepreneurs, innovators and academics across engineering and technology. As a National Academy, we provide leadership for engineering and technology, and independent, expert advice to policymakers in the UK and beyond.Our work is enabled by funding from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, corporate and university partners, charitable trusts and foundations, and individual donors.