| Royal Academy of Engineering | |
| Formation: | June 1976 |
| Status: | Royal Charter |
| Purpose: | To advance and promote excellence in engineering |
| Headquarters: | London, |
| Location: | United Kingdom |
| Membership: | 2 Royal Fellows, Fellows, International Fellows, Honorary Fellows |
| Leader Title: | Patron |
| Leader Name: | HM the King[1] |
| Leader Title2: | President |
| Leader Title3: | CEO |
| Leader Name3: | Dr Hayaatun Sillem |
| Main Organ: | Board of Trustees |
The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) is the United Kingdom's national academy of engineering.
The Academy was founded in June 1976 as the Fellowship of Engineering with support from Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who became the first senior fellow and remained so until his death. The Fellowship was incorporated and granted a royal charter on 17 May 1983 and became the Royal Academy of Engineering on 16 March 1992. It is governed according to the charter and associated statutes and regulations (as amended from time to time).[2] [3] In June 2024 His Majesty the King became Patron of the Academy.[1]
HistoryThe Fellowship's first meeting, at Buckingham Palace on 11 June 1976, enrolled 126 of the UK's leading engineers.[5] The first fellows included Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle, the jet engine developer, the structural engineer Sir Ove Arup, radar pioneer Sir George G. MacFarlane, the inventor of the bouncing bomb, Sir Barnes Wallis, Francis Thomas Bacon, the inventor of the alkaline fuel cell, and father of the UK computer industry Sir Maurice Wilkes. The Fellowship's first president, Christopher Hinton, had driven the UK's supremacy in nuclear power.[6]
The Fellowship focused on championing excellence in all fields of engineering. Activities began in earnest in the mid-1970s with the Distinction lecture series, now known as the Hinton lectures. The Fellowship was asked to advise the Department of Industry for the first time, and the Academy became host and presenter of the MacRobert Award.[7]
In the 1980s, the Fellowship received its own royal charter along with its first government grant-in-aid. At the same time, it also received significant industrial funding, initiated its research programme to build bridges between academia and industry, and opened its doors to international and honorary fellows.[8]
In 1990, the Academy launched its first major initiative in education, Engineering Education Continuum, which evolved into the BEST Programme[9] and Shape the Future and Tomorrow's Engineers.[10]
The Academy's increasing level of influence – in policy, research and education – was recognized when it was granted a royal title and became The Royal Academy of Engineering in 1992.[11]
The Academy's current logo[12] is inspired by the Neolithic hand axe, humans' first technological advance, which was taken to be a symbol appropriate to the Academy, supposedly representative of the ever-changing relationship between humanity and technology.[13]
The Academy's premises, 3–4 Carlton House Terrace, are in a Grade I listed building overlooking St James's Park, designed by architect John Nash and owned by the Crown Estate. The Academy shares the Terrace with two of its sister academies, the British Academy and the Royal Society as well as other institutes.
The building was renamed Prince Philip House,[14] after renovation works were completed in 2012.
The Academy is instrumental in two policy alliances set up in 2009 to provide coherent advice on engineering education and policy across the profession: Education for Engineering[15] and Engineering the Future.[16]
The Academy is one of four agencies that receive funding from the UK's Department for Business, Innovation and Skills for activities that support government policy on public understanding of science and engineering.[17]
As part of its programme to communicate the benefits and value of engineering to society, the Academy publishes a quarterly magazine, Ingenia https://web.archive.org/web/20150924034924/http://www.ingenia.org.uk/Online. The Academy says that Ingenia is written for a non-specialist audience and is "aimed at all those with an interest in engineering, whether working in business and industry, government, academia or the financial community". The Academy also makes Ingenia available to A-Level students in 3,000 schools in the UK.
The president of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the elected officer of the Academy, presides over meetings of the council. The president is elected for a single term of not more than five years.
| Years | President | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1976–1981 | OM, Kt, KBE, FREng, FRS | ||
| 1981–1986 | DSC, KBE, FREng | ||
| 1986–1991 | OM, Kt, CBE, FREng, FRS, | ||
| 1991–1996 | Sir William Barlow | Kt, FREng | |
| 1996–2001 | Kt, CBE, FREng, FRS | ||
| 2001–2006 | Kt, FREng, FRS | ||
| 2006–2011 | FREng, FRS | ||
| 2011–2014 | GBE, Kt, FREng | ||
| 2014–2019 | OM, DBE, FREng, FRS | ||
| 2019– | GBE, Kt, FREng, FRSE | ||
See main article: Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. The Fellowship currently includes over 1,500 engineers from all sectors and disciplines of engineering. The fellows, distinguished by the title Fellow of The Royal Academy of Engineering and the post-nominal designation FREng, lead, guide, and contribute to the Academy's work and provide expertise.[18]
The Royal Fellows of the Academy are the duke of Kent and the princess royal.
The Academy strives to ensure that the pool of candidates for election to the Fellowship better reflects the diverse make-up of society as a whole. It set up the Proactive Membership Committee[19] in 2008 to identify and support the nomination of candidates from underrepresented areas, with the aim of boosting the number of women candidates, engineers from industry and small and medium enterprises, those from emerging technologies and ethnically diverse backgrounds.[20]