New Fellows' Welcome Celebration

The Academy's Fellowship represents some of the most outstanding engineering researchers, innovators, entrepreneurs, government advisers and business and industry leaders in the UK and across the world. We are delighted to invite you to this event, which formally welcomes you to the Fellowship and is an important part of your induction. 

The New Fellows' Welcome Celebration is a three-part event held across two days. New Fellows are expected to attend all three elements of the welcome celebrations.

Dinner 

Monday 19 October, 6.00pm to 10.30pm, New Fellows and one guest only: 

A formal dinner at the magnificent Drapers Hall, with short inaugural ceremony where the new Fellows' are recognised with their official scroll. Due to venue capacity and the dinner's prestigious nature, attendance is reserved for new Fellows, each of whom may be accompanied by one guest. This guest may be your proposer or another person of your choosing. Their ticket should be purchased when registering yourself. Dress code is black tie, formal, cocktail and decorations.

Briefing

Tuesday 20 October, 1.00pm to 5.00pm, New Fellows only:

New Fellows find out how to engage in key Academy activities and learn about the work of the Academy. New Fellows will be invited to subscribe to the obligation, sign the Fellows' book and have individual photos taken. There will also be a Q&A session with the President, Vice Presidents, Chief Executive and Senior Leadership Team. Dress code is business attire.

Reception

Tuesday 20 October, 5.30pm to 8.00pm, all Fellows, new Fellows and guests of new Fellows only: 

An opportunity for the wider Fellowship to welcome the new Fellows to the Academy. This networking reception at Prince Philip House will include access to the 50th anniversary exhibition. Dress code is business attire or cocktail dress.

Programme

A programme with timings can be found under the More details tab above. A detailed itinerary will be shared no later than a week prior to the event. 

Guest registration

New Fellows should register their dinner and reception guests at the same time as registering themselves.

The reception on 20 October offers an opportunity for the wider Fellowship who wish congratulate the 2026 new Fellows. Fellows who are not joining as a guest of a new Fellows should register themselves for the reception via the link in the Fellows Area.

To help ensure fairness and allow all new Fellows to maximise this celebratory occasion, the Academy kindly reserves the right to cancel additional bookings that exceed the allowed limit. We appreciate your understanding and cooperation. 

Photography

Please note that photography  may take place during this event. All photographs and videos will be securely stored on the Academy’s servers and used for editorial, marketing and media use by the Academy and selected press or industry media. Please let us know if you do not agree to this processing. Please refer to our General Privacy Policy for more details. 

Accessibility

It is very important to the Royal Academy of Engineering that our events are accessible to all. If you have any accessibility requirements, please contact the Events team more than one week in advance of this event so that necessary arrangements can be made. Contact details: [email protected].  

Cancellations

All cancellation requests must be received in writing via email to the events team at [email protected]. A request for cancellation (and refund) will be accepted up to the deadline 28 September 2026. Royal Academy of Engineering must make commitments to suppliers at that time and making changes will result in additional costs or penalties. If the cancellation request is received after the deadline, we cannot issue a refund and would recommend a substitution to attend in your guest's place. A written notification of a substitution will be accepted by email up to the morning of the 19 October.

Diversity monitoring form

The Academy is committed to equity, diversity and inclusion and one of our goals is to develop an engineering community fit for the future. To help us achieve this, we would like to collect some basic anonymous data about the event attendees. If you would like to help, please complete the diversity monitoring form by logging into your user account on our website and completing ‘Update my D&I data’.