Ingenious public engagement awards

About Ingenious

Ingenious is an awards scheme for projects that engage the public with engineers and engineering while providing engineers with skills and opportunities in public engagement.

We prioritise projects that reach diverse and underrepresented audiences including communities in the most deprived neighbourhoods in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and that engage with engineers and people of different genders, ages and ethnic backgrounds.

Funding from £3,000 to £30,000 is available

Programme aims

The Ingenious awards programme aims to:

• inspire creative public engagement with engineering projects
• motivate engineers to share their stories, passion and expertise with wider audiences and develop their communication and engagement skills
• raise awareness of the diversity, nature and impact of engineering among people of all ages and backgrounds
• provide opportunities for engineers to engage with members of the public from groups currently underrepresented in engineering

We welcome proposals from engineers, universities, science and engineering communicators and engagement professionals, colleges and schools.

The Academy’s overarching goal for 2025 is to harness the power of engineering to build a sustainable society and an inclusive economy that works for everyone. We welcome projects that help us to achieve this. 

Impact

Ingenious has funded 250 projects across the UK, providing opportunities for nearly 7,000 engineers to take part in public engagement activities and to gain skills in communication and engagement, reaching 3.2 million members of the public. 

Since 2010 we have tracked the long-term impact of Ingenious projects on the engineers who have taken part. Over 90% reported benefitting from participating in an Ingenious project, 67% had improved their communication skills and 37% gained new perspectives on their work. Other benefits include developing project management, budgeting and leadership skills.

Awardee feedback