WELCOME

Help us celebrate engineering collaboration

Are you involved in a UK-led engineering project with innovation at its core? Are you collaborating with partners from other organisations or research groups to achieve this?

If so, now’s your chance to let the wider world know about your success and get the recognition you deserve, as The Engineer’s ninth annual Collaborate to Innovate (C2I) Awards opens for entries.

C2I was established to uncover and celebrate some of the UK’s most innovative and inspiring examples of engineering collaboration.

Previous winners have included life-saving medical devices, ground-breaking autonomous vehicle projects, key innovations in clean power generation, and disruptive advances in aerospace technology.

The competition is open to any member of a collaborative engineering team. So, whether you’re a major OEM, nimble SME, or academic research group we’d love to hear from you.

As in previous years, entries will be judged by a panel of some of the UK’s leading engineers, and the winners will be announced in Feb 2025 at a special awards party at One Great George Street, London.

We look forward to receiving your entries!

Jon Excell
Editor & Publisher – The Engineer


Enter Awards

Deadline - 6th September 2024

Sponsorship

Find out how you can partner with us

2023 Winners

View the win

WHAT OUR JUDGES SAY...

The strength and diversity of the entries this year reflect the strength and diversity of our industrial sector

Dr Richard Drake CTO Babcock International Group

As ever it’s great to see the variety of ways that engineers can contribute to solving problems and improving the world we live in

Alan Newby Director Aerospace Technology & Future Programmes Rolls-Royce plc

It’s really heartening to see the amount of innovation that’s going on. This year, I particularly enjoyed the variety and breadth of topics that engineering is being applied to and the innovations that have been made to benefit society across the board.

Abbie Hutty Lead Systems Engineer ispace

Collaboration is the name of the game in engineering and all of this year’s entries showed good evidence of that, as well as a bit of left field thinking.

Katherine Bennett CEO HVM Catapult

I was impressed by the diversity of exciting and innovative ideas that are coming through, the strength of the collaborations that are helping to deliver that, and the fact that they are looking at all of the big problems we’re facing at every level

Dr Rachel Bishop Deputy Director, Research Base UKRI

Another strong year demonstrating engineering innovation and collaboration and its impact on society. This year, as we move towards net zero, the strength of innovation in net zero has really come to the fore across all of the categories.

Professor Andy Wright Independent Consultant

This year’s awards show the importance of innovation and real evidence of impact

Dr Isabel DiVanna Senior Member, Wolfson College University of Cambridge

AND THE WINNERS...

As a growing business, for AEM to be recognised alongside some of the biggest names in UK industry was a fantastic boost. Winning both the Automotive and Grand Prix awards has also helped boost our profile, bringing in customers from as far away as South America and Australia.

Mike Woodcock Chief Commercial Officer Advanced Electric Machine

The C2I awards are the best industry event I have had the privilege of attending. They are less formal than most traditional awards events and consequently provide a more relaxed atmosphere in which to network and engage with other attendees. The result is an event which is, quite frankly, very good fun while at the same time celebrating some wonderful innovation.

Andrew Rae Professor of Engineering University of the Highlands and Islands

How to Enter & FAQs

All entries must be submitted by the entry deadline. Entries will not be considered fully submitted until the entrant proceeds to the final stage and submits their entry. A confirmation email will be received once complete.

Entries may be edited up until the point of 'submission'.

The deadline for entry is Friday 6th September 2024

No, entry into the awards is FREE

The Engineer Collaborate to Innovate Awards are open to any group, whether from academia or industry, that is - or has been - engaged in a successful collaborative engineering project.

The project must represent a collaboration between at least two teams from different organisations; teams may be from, for example, companies, universities or research organisations.

In order to attract entries from an as diverse and cross-disciplinary group as possible entries will be invited from projects which address engineering challenges related to the following broad themes:

- Automotive
- Aerospace & Defence
- Energy & Environment
- Healthcare & Medical ~
- Information, Data & Connectivity
- Manufacturing Technology
- STEM Initiative
- Young Innovator
- Wildcard

For the Young Innovator category we’re primarily looking for innovative projects. Evidence of collaboration is not essential.

Shortlisted projects will meet the following criteria:

- They must be genuinely Innovative (i.e. represent a new technology or a new application of technology
- They must be a true collaboration between 2 or more teams (i.e. not a collaboration between different teams from the same organisation)
- They must have an expected or demonstrable impact in their application area

At least one partner must have a presence in the UK.

Companies may enter more than one category as appropriate.

Unless stated otherwise in category criteria, the awards are judging performance from January 2022 to present; the project may be ongoing or completed within the last 15 months.

The judging panel reserves the right to move entries from one category to another if they feel it is more appropriate. However, they cannot be expected to routinely re-categorise incorrectly entered projects. The judges' decision is final.

Sponsors are not permitted to enter any category that they are sponsoring.

All submissions must be made online through the online entry portal and the requested information must be supplied within the entry form. Any information not provided via the online form will not be passed to the judges.

In all cases, the judges are looking for concise written submissions and your entry should cover as many of the listed criteria as possible.

Please keep the word count within the stipulations per category. Please note that the judging panel reserves the right to penalise entries exceeding the word limit.
Please read the relevant category criteria to establish what type of supporting material should be included.

Digital uploads may take a variety of formats e.g. PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint or jpeg file. Please ensure that uploaded logos, video and any supporting files follow the supporting material guidelines. Please note when uploading supporting material file names must not include any 'special' characters e.g. _ / ( ) & * ".

Where websites/links form part of an entry, please ensure any URLs, access details, usernames and passwords needed for judging are supplied, that they work, and that they will continue to work until January 2024. Sites that cannot be viewed will be eliminated from the judging.

The events team are not responsible for retaining any supporting material for collection, unless the entrant specifically requests this by email.
Information provided in your entry form (including any supporting information) will be used by the judges to assess your entry.

Should you be shortlisted, the same content may also be published in whole or in part by The Engineer for event coverage.

If any particular information in your entry form is sensitive or not authorised for the public, please contact eventsteam@markallengroup.com with details immediately upon submission of your entry.

All entrants must supply all contact details as requested in the online form for a main point of contact we can approach should the entry require any further clarification.

In the event that your entry is shortlisted, all entry form details e.g. Main Partner name / Collaborating Partner names as completed in the online entry process will be used on Awards collateral (e.g. Website, Awards graphics, Awards Supplement, and in the event that your entry wins, on the trophy). Copy will adhere to the brand’s house style.

Please ensure that the information submitted is accurate and the correct companies are credited as appropriate. We accept no responsibility for any incorrectly submitted information.

Agreement of all parties involved in the project should be secured before entering.

Shortlisted entrants will be contacted once the judging has taken place and invited to attend the winners’ party 27th February 2025 at One Great George Street in central London.