The Academy will make five awards of £3,000 each year to UK* engineers in higher education, research or industrial employment, who have demonstrated excellence in the early stage of their career.
For this award, early career is expected to be ten years or less since graduation from their first degree in engineering or equivalent qualification on the day of the submission deadline. Any career breaks will be appropriately considered by the Committee.
The Academy aspires to recognise excellence in both academia and industry. There is no restriction on the engineering discipline of the nominee. Nominations for engineers who have come from non-traditional backgrounds e.g. apprenticeships are especially welcomed.
From the five awardees, the Academy’s Awards Committee will select an overall winner who, in addition to the cash prize, will receive the Academy’s Sir George Macfarlane Medal.
Nominations can be submitted by anyone who would like to highlight contributions to engineering excellence.
*By ‘UK’ we mean engineers who are either UK citizens or working in the UK for a period of not less than three years immediately before the year of the award.
Ready to start a submission?
This year we are inviting both nominations and self-applications.
Nominations can be submitted by anyone who would like to recommend a young engineer for the award. Self-applications can be submitted by any young engineer who meets the criteria outlined below.
Both the Nomination Form and the Application Form can be accessed by clicking the Nomination Portal button below.
- If you are nominating someone else, please use the Nomination Form called: 2026 RAEng Young Engineer of the Year (Nomination)
- If you are an engineer applying for yourself, please use the Application Form called: 2026 RAEng Young Engineer of the Year (Application)
Submissions must be made via the Academy’s Grant Management System no later than 4pm on Tuesday 14 October 2025.
Nomination/ Self-application guidelines
Details of the Nominee
Full details of the young engineer including their current position, and contact information.
A 50-word summary describing how they have demonstrated excellence in the early stage of their career.
The number of years since graduation from their first engineering degree.
Curriculum Vitae (CV) of no more than two pages, focusing on their achievements relevant to this award.
Citation
Citation of up to 500 words describing how the young engineer has demonstrated engineering excellence in the early stage of their career.
Excellence may be demonstrated in several ways including, but not restricted to, individuals who have:
- Shown exceptional leadership in promoting engineering in schools or groups, or through regional initiatives helping to shape a community fit for the future.
- Published work of significance that has attracted national and/or international attention evidenced by press or other citations.
- Exhibited outstanding productivity and creativity evidenced by patents or designs for technologies that are improving lives and contributing to a sustainable and innovative economy.
- Made a demonstrable and significant contribution to the commercial success of a project or company.
- Demonstrated outstanding leadership of a project or team within their company or institution.
- Demonstrated commitment to the Academy’s values of Progressive Leadership, Equity, diversity & inclusion, Excellence for impact, Collaboration first, and Creativity & innovation.
Letters of support
Letters of support from two referees must be included for both nominations and self-applications. To ensure an impartial perspective, at least one referee must be from outside of the young engineer’s organisation. The Nominator/young engineer cannot be a referee. Each reference should be:
- Evidence-based, with specific examples of the nominee's achievements and how they meet the criteria for the award.
- Objective, providing an unbiased evaluation of the nominee's qualifications, work, and your reasons for supporting their nomination.
- Authored by an individual with relevant experience and a thorough understanding of the young engineer’s work and field of expertise. It should state the relationship with the young engineer including your job title and position.
- Printed on organisational letterhead, if applicable.
Additional guidelines
- Only completed nominations and self-applications will be considered. Please ensure that the form is complete with CVs and letters of support at the time of submission.
- Each nominator can submit up to three nominations for the Award in any year.
The Academy is committed to diversity and welcomes nominations and nominees from women and other groups who are currently under-represented across engineering, as well as recognising the full breadth of engineering.