Awarded twice a year through the New Year and King’s Birthday Honours lists, these accolades recognise outstanding personal achievements or exceptional service to local communities across the UK and beyond.
But the UK honours and awards landscape is more diverse than many people realise. It encompasses a wide range of awards designed to celebrate excellence across business, education and innovation. Few systems anywhere in the world recognise achievement in such a broad and meaningful way.
Alongside the traditional honours lists sit a number of highly respected Royal Awards, including:
- King’s Award for Enterprise: Celebrating outstanding business achievement
- Queen Elizabeth Prizes for Education: Recognising outstanding projects with society-wide impact led by colleges and universities
- King’s Award for Voluntary Service (KAVS): Regarded as the equivalent of an MBE for volunteer groups
Perhaps the most prestigious and unique award globally for engineering is the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering. Read on to learn more about this awe-inspiring prize, its impact on our society and how it’s inspiring the next generation of brilliant, young minds.
An Award Like No Other
Now in its 12th year, the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering (QEPrize) is widely regarded as the world’s leading award for engineering-based excellence. Awarded annually, it recognises a bold, groundbreaking innovation that has delivered a clear benefit to humanity, on a global scale.
Beyond international recognition, uniquely the prize also comes with a £500,000 award, which is awarded individually or shared between a team of up to ten engineers. Open to nominations from anywhere around the world, this award focuses on real-world engineering breakthroughs — ideas that are actively shaping how we live and work, every single day.
To date, the QEPrize has honoured 26 engineers whose out-of-the-box thinking has improved the lives of billions of people, underscoring just how central engineering is to modern society.
Engineering That Shapes the World
Looking at past winners gives us a sense of the QEPrize’s extraordinary scope. Previous recipients include the minds behind the internet, GPS, digital imaging, LED lighting and modern wind power technology, which are all innovations that now underpin everyday life.
Most recently, the 2025 QEPrize recognised seven engineers for their pioneering contributions to modern machine learning, which have been the foundation of today’s artificial intelligence (AI) revolution. By combining advanced algorithms, high-performance hardware and high-quality datasets, these pillars together have enabled the AI systems that are now transforming industries such as healthcare, education and the creative fields.
These are far from abstract achievements; they are practical solutions that uplift how modern societies function and allow human beings to evolve and flourish. This is exemplary of exactly the kind of impact the QEPrize exists to celebrate.
Human-Centred Engineering
A recurring theme in QEPrize recognition is the importance of human-centred innovation. Modern engineering is not just about technical brilliance; it is about responsibility, inclusion and long-term benefit.
Whether it’s improving health and elderly care, personalising education, empowering designers or addressing our changing climate, today’s most powerful engineers are those that align innovation with human needs and values.
That’s why the QEPrize is so special: it shines a light on this approach, celebrating engineers who combine ingenuity with vision and purpose.
Inspiring Future Engineers
The QEPrize also plays a truly integral role in sparking inspiration in the next generation.
By highlighting the creativity and sheer excitement of groundbreaking discoveries, this prize helps to challenge outdated perceptions of the industry and encourages young people, and especially women, to explore its wealth of possibilities, as well as to push the boundaries of what’s possible. It also serves to exemplify the power of teamwork, which is particularly important to highlight.
Through public engagement, global ambassadors and initiatives such as the Engineers Gallery at the Science Museum, the prize actively supports our engineers and their bright futures. They are, after all, the builders of tomorrow’s world.
With the upcoming announcement of the 2026 winners just on the horizon (3rd of February), we can’t wait to see the innovation that takes centre stage this year.
Thinking About a Nomination?
Nominations for the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering usually open in April and close in June, with the winners announced the following February. While the standards are high and the process is rigorous, the judging behind this prize ensures that only the best of the best are recognised for their work on a global stage.
A strong nomination goes beyond technical excellence. Judges look for:
- What is it that this person (or people) has done that is a groundbreaking innovation in engineering?
- In what way has this innovation been of global benefit to humanity?
- Is there anyone else who might claim to have had a pivotal role in this development?
Unfortunately, many potential nominations can fall short; not because the innovation isn’t exceptional, but because its story isn’t told as clearly or confidently as it deserves to be.
How Awards Intelligence Can Support You
At Awards Intelligence, we specialise in helping individuals, teams and organisations navigate complex and prestigious awards with confidence. Working closely with engineers and innovators, we can draw out the full significance of their work, shaping clear, compelling submissions that speak directly to the judging criteria.
Our approach reflects how elite awards are judged in practice, balancing technical excellence with impact, credibility and narrative clarity. From nomination planning through to refining supporting letters (otherwise known as referee statements), we provide practical, hands-on support every step of the way.
If you are considering nominating someone for the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, we would be delighted to talk it through with you and explore how we can strengthen your submission. Get in touch with a member of our team today to get started.