Call for entries for E&T Innovation Awards

The 2021 E&T Innovation Awards are open for entries and are looking for innovations that are making a real difference in our world. 

The E&T Innovation Awards, sponsored by MathWorks, are the ultimate celebration of difference makers, pioneers, projects and organisations that are revolutionising our world through excellence in engineering and technology.

The awards give people and organisations the opportunity to put their work forward, raising their profile, expanding their network and recognising and celebrating their successes and achievements.

The IET’s mission is to inspire excellence in the engineering and technology sector, and these awards put innovators cutting edge technology and advances in the spotlight, helping them to advance their fundamental work.

IET President, Professor Danielle George, said:

“The IET has access to some of the best engineering minds in the world and each year, the E&T Innovation Awards celebrate the achievements of the most outstanding innovations across engineering and technology that tackle the major economic and social challenges that face our planet today.”

This year’s 17 award categories reflect the critical challenges engineers and scientists will tackle today to shape and improve our future and include three brand new categories for 2021: Future Mobility, Young Pioneer and Trust and Truth.

There are 17 categories to showcase an innovation this year:

1. Sustainability and Climate Change: This award recognises an organisation making significant steps to bridge the gap between an unsustainable present and a more sustainable future. 

2. Future Power and Energy: This award recognises cutting edge solutions within the energy sector, across the areas of energy discovery, procurement and distribution.

3. Diversity, Equality & Inclusion Impact: This category rewards organisations for harnessing a truly diverse workforce or inclusive ethos, thus recognising the significant efforts of organisations globally that excel in their commitment to equality and inclusion across all strands of diversity.

4. Cyber Security: This award recognises an organisation that is taking proactive steps to counter attacks and takes preventative measures to remain one-step ahead of cyber threats.

5. Digital Health and Social Care: This award recognises the excellence and innovation in a growing digital health and care sector and looks for organisations who are designing effective and efficient solutions to the health and care needs of international populations.

6. Protecting Society and Saving Lives: This category seeks to recognise an individual, a team or a collaboration within the armed forces or emergency services, who has developed an innovative concept or delivered an innovative product that has had the greatest impact in enhancing operational capability, improving conditions for personnel or increasing environmental sustainability of operations.

7. Smarter World: This will be awarded to an engineering team in recognition of a project which demonstrates how smart technology has been used to enhance the user experience and champions better intelligent systems for creating a smarter planet.

8. Communications and IT: Entries can range from research concepts and ideas to technical issues and industrial applications, such as dedicated mobile applications and solutions, wearable communication technology, wireless and wireline networking incl. 4G and 5G developments, M2M, IoT, Smart Sensors, infrastructure transformation, business efficiency and the use of big data.

9. Manufacturing 4.0: Entries to this category are welcomed from manufacturing companies of any size, whether independently owned or as part of a larger organisation and can range from research concepts and ideas to technical issues and industrial applications.

10. R&D: Recognition will be given to entries delivering tangible, pioneering and original solutions which address specific needs, offering a new value stream. Emerging technology entries are welcomed from all areas of engineering including electronics, telecommunications, transport, manufacturing, power, information technology.

11. Intelligent Systems: This category recognises excellence in the development of ‘intelligent systems’, the new wave of embedded and real-time systems that are typically highly connected, have massive processing power, and perform complex functions that are often safety-critical or mission-critical.

12. Future Mobility: This award promotes excellence in travel, transport and movement of goods, with a focus on solutions which improve sustainability and efficiency, as well as the overall experience.

13. Tech for Good: This award recognises innovators who are creating solutions which will positively enhance our lives and change the shape of the world we live in today.

14. Future Unicorn: This award shines a spotlight on the start-ups who have the potential to be the next tech giant.

15. Young Pioneer: This award celebrates rising talent who are using engineering, science and technology to accelerate societal development within the critical areas we’ve identified.

16. Trust and Truth: This category is looking for teams, projects and organisations who recognise the potential social and human problems caused by advanced technology and negating these problems with transparent and honest communication as well as sympathetic implementation of that technology.

17. Difference-Maker of the Year: This award recognises and celebrates people who are making a difference and who, either through their research, profession or aspiration, are using engineering solutions to solve global challenges, particularly over the last 12 months and is all about celebrating incredible leaders who have made an impact.