National Engineering Day, 13 November 2024

Terms and conditions

1. Submission of ‘Engineering Role Model’ nominations will be deemed as acceptance of these terms and conditions. 
2. The competition is run by the Royal Academy of Engineering (the Promoter) whose registered office is Prince Philip House, 3 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5DG.

Eligibility to enter 

1. Nominations are open to residents of the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) of any age or those with a strong connection to the UK. Nominations will not be accepted from the Promoter’s judging panel.
2. There is no entry fee and no purchase necessary to submit a nomination. 
3. Nomination submissions and details of how to nominate an ‘Engineering Role Model’ are available here: https://raeng.org.uk/national-engineering-day

How to submit a nomination

1. Nomination submissions are accepted from 00:01hrs GMT 13 June until 23:59hrs GMT 16 August 2024 only. Nominations received before and after this date will not be permitted.   
2. Nomination submissions are made by visiting https://raeng.org.uk/national-engineering-day and then by completing and submitting the form. Only completed forms (defined as a form where all the entry details have been completed) will be accepted.
3. The judging panel created by the Promoter will review the submissions and select five nominations it feels best fits the ‘Engineering Role Model’ criteria.
4. Engineering Role Model criteria is as follows. The nominee must be:
   1. Strong connection to the UK – if residing outside of the UK currently they must be willing and able to travel back to the UK
   2. As an individual they’ll need to:
      1. Demonstrate an innovative mindset
      2. Have an ethical and environmentally responsibility
      3. Be adaptable and resilient
      4. Have a creative outlook
      5. Have an engaging persona
      6. Be an advocate of D&I
5. Any nominee must agree to:
   1. Be celebrated as a publicly accessible statue and as such they agree to their image and appropriate information about them being used for such purposes.
   2. Give their time between 01 September to 14 November 2024 to:
   3. Work with statue production teams and be willing to be photographed, cast or whatever is needed within reason for the purpose of having their image turned into a ‘statue’.
   4. Work with the Promoter to provide information that could be turned into written and visual materials that will be publicly shared with members of the general public, the media and on social media.
   5. Take part in media interviews.
   6. Take a day’s leave on 13 November to take part in statue unveiling ceremonies.
6. The Promoter will ensure that any public facing materials that contain any nominee’s image or written information has been approved by the appropriate nominee first.
7. The Promoter will contact all nominees within 14 days of receiving the nomination to inform them that they have been nominated and to obtain their permission for their nomination to be processed. At the same time, the Promoter will seek further biographical information to help with the judging process and written approval for the data to be kept for the duration of the campaign.
8. Multiple nominations from the same person are accepted provided they are nominating different people.
9. Any entries that the Promoter considers (at our absolute discretion) to be dangerous, vulgar, offensive, indecent, illegal, copied, cruel or fraudulent, or infringe on the rights or copyright of others, will be immediately disqualified.
10. No responsibility can be accepted for nominations not received for any reason.
11. Nominees give permission to the Promoter to contact them via the email address provided by the nominator as part of the nomination submission.

Engineering Role Model selection and announcement 

1. At least five engineering role models will be selected from the nominees submitted.
2. The engineering role models will be chosen by a panel of judges appointed by the Royal Academy of Engineering.
3. The likeness of the engineering role models will be turned into statues.
4. The term ‘statues’ refer not only to 3D life-sized representations of the individual, but also 2D representations both physical and digital, which are not limited in size or scale.
5. The engineering role models will be notified by telephone or email at the end of August.
6. If a final nominee cannot be contacted, the Promoter reserves the right to pick a replacement. 

Creation and display of the Engineering Role Model statues

1. The statues will be created by either 1. A production company employed by the Academy PR agency and paid for by the Academy and 2. Academy partners.
2. In order to create the statues, we expect the production companies/statue makers will need to take photographs and casts of the engineering role models and as such the engineering role models agree to take part in these modelling sessions.
3. The final statues will be unveiled on 13 November at a public accessible spot (which might be inside or outside) and remain in situ for up to a week before taking up final public display at a place of the Promoter’s choosing. The engineering role models give permission for the Promoter to use their image and details in this way.

Public Announcement of the Engineering Role Model statues

1. The engineering role models and their statues will be shared on social media and in national media on National Engineering Day and the days that follow. The engineering role models give permission for the Promoter to use their details in this way.
2. The Promoter will cover, upon prior approval and the submission of receipts, any travel expenses incurred by the engineering role models in travelling to media interviews, statue unveiling ceremony and statue production meetings. The Promoter will not cover any additional expenses.

Copyright of images

1. The engineering role models give the Promoter permission for their image to be captured and then turned into a statue by third-party production companies, which may or may not be directly employed by the Promoter.  
2. The engineering role models will be given approval of the final statue image.
3. All still and moving imagery and written content captured over the course of the campaign which features statues, spokespeople and engineering role models will be used for earned and paid media including the Academy’s and ThisisEngineering social channels, will be maintained on the ThisIsEngineering.com website and will be used internally at the Royal Academy of Engineering in perpetuity.

Data protection and publicity 

1. The engineering role models agree to the use of his/her/their name and image in any publicity material, as well as their nomination. Any personal data relating to the engineering role models or their nominators will be used solely in accordance with current [UK] data protection legislation and will not be disclosed to a third party – outside of the Promoter’s PR agency and statue production company partners - without the nominator or nominee’s prior consent. 
2. The engineering role models’ names will be available 28 days after closing date by emailing the following address: thisisengineering@raeng.org.uk.
3. GDPR handling of personal data is outlined here (link to Handling of personal data.docx), by accepting these terms and conditions the nominators, nominees and engineering role models also agree to their personal data being handled as outlined in the document.

Limitation of liability 

1. The Promoter does not accept any liability for any damage, loss, injury, or disappointment suffered by any entrants as a result of either participating in the competition or being selected for a prize, save that the Promoter does not exclude its liability for death or personal injury as a result of its own negligence.

General 

1. The promoter’s decision in respect of all matters to do with the Engineer Role Model campaign will be final and no correspondence will be entered into.
2. The Engineering Role Modal campaign and these terms and conditions will be governed by English law and any disputes will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England.
3. This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed, or administered by, or associated with, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter or any other Social Network, or any other competition.
4. The Promoter shall have the right, at its sole discretion and at any time, to change or modify these terms and conditions, such change shall be effective immediately upon posting to this webpage. 

Handling of your personal data 

In this document, “we”, “our”, or “us” refer to the Royal Academy of Engineering (The Academy) 

Registered Charity number: 293074 - registered in the United Kingdom 

Registered office: Prince Philip House, 3 Carlton House Terrace, London, SW1Y 5DG 

Data Protection Officer: Chris Ordanza and chris.ordanza@raeng.org.uk 

This Privacy notice applies to personal data provided by the nominator and the nominee’s personal data that has been provided to the Royal Academy of Engineering by the nominator.  Unless stated otherwise, references to “you” below will apply to both nominee and nominator.

Read our General Privacy Policy

What is the purpose of this document?

The Royal Academy of Engineering is a “controller” in relation to personal data. This means that we are responsible for deciding how we hold and use personal information about you. This Privacy notice makes you aware of how and why your personal data will be used, namely for the purposes of running a campaign to collect nominations from the general public for people they believe are engineering role models, those people whose contribution to or creation of an engineering feat has made or will make a difference to the world, an individual whose engineering expertise is in an area that is of particular interest to Generation Alpha such as music, arts, food, fashion, gaming, sustainability, this is called the “Engineering Role Models” campaign. This privacy notice provides you with certain information that must be provided under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). 

Data protection principles

We will comply with data protection law and principles, which means that your data will be: 

• Used lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way. 
• Collected only for valid purposes that we have clearly explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with those purposes. 
• Relevant to the purposes we have told you about and limited only to those purposes. 
• Accurate and kept up to date. 
• Kept only as long as necessary for the purposes we have told you about. 
• Kept securely. 

The kind of information we hold about you

In connection with your nomination, we will collect, store, and use the following categories of personal information about you: 

• First name, surname, phone number, email address of the nominator 
• First name, surname, phone number, email address of the nominee 
• Nominee’s job title, home town, and company name/employer’s company name,  
• Personal information may also be included in the narrative of why the nominee deserves the award. We will destroy by 13th November 2024 or at the request of the nominee, whichever is soonest, any submission that contains sensitive personal data, including but not limited to information concerning a nominee’s health, sexual orientation, religion or race. 
• We also conduct our own research to find identified nominees. We will collect the same information to the extent it is available from publicly available sources or other third parties we interview. 

How is your personal information collected?

We may collect personal information from the following sources: 

• The nominee and nominator. 
• Data from internet searches and interviews with the nominator and the nominee plus (if relevant) nominee’s colleagues, co-workers and employers. 

How we will use information about you

Our mission is to inspire and encourage a new, more diverse generation into engineering. Of today’s engineering workforce only 16% are women and 10% are black, Asian, minority ethnic. What does today’s 13–14-year-olds - Generation Alpha - currently want to be when they grow up? The number one career choice for them is: Doctor, closely followed by, Influencer1. And yet, engineers influence the world and help improve people’s health in ways beyond our imagination. 

Having visibility of engineering Role Models (especially female) provide a mixture of school influences and an active understanding of engineering beyond what is provided through the school setting. 

This is why for National Engineering Day 2024 we’ll be celebrating engineering role models that Generation Alpha will want to look up to, quite literally, by creating a series of statues of engineers whose stories and engineering achievements meet the criteria that makes someone an aspirational role model for the next, more diverse generation of engineers. 

To help us identify those engineering role models we will be asking our engineering network to nominate engineers who they think would fit the bill, we will use the personal information we collect about you solely for this purpose. 

In relation to the nominator’s personal data, the basis of our processing is legitimate interest.  It is in our legitimate interests to process the nominee’s personal data in order to choose our Engineering Role Models. We only use your information on this legal basis where we have considered that, on balance, our legitimate interests are not overridden by the nominee’s interests, fundamental rights, or freedoms. 

We have a legitimate interest in providing certain of your personal information to third parties who may require it to assist with the judging of the entries and/or the publicity of the campaign, and/or the creation of the statues.   

Having received the nomination, we will then process that information to decide whether the nominee meets the basic requirements to be shortlisted. All nominations will be shared with a panel of judges selected by the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Academy’s PR agency to help us choose the final five nominees – the Engineering Role Models. 

Further details of how we process nominations are detailed on the campaign Terms and Conditions. 

How we use particularly sensitive personal information

Of today’s engineering workforce, only 16% are women and 10% are black, Asian, minority ethnic, which is why our campaign is also shining a spotlight on engineering role models from those underrepresented groups.  We therefore particularly welcome nominations of engineers who are women, LGBTQ+, disabled, from Black, Asian, minority ethnic groups, and those from lower socio-economic backgrounds.  As such nominees will be contacted to 1. Confirm you are happy to proceed as a nomination under the Terms and Conditions and 2. To obtain further biographical information to help the judging process. Biographical information may or may not include sensitive personal information such as details of your health, sexuality, and race. Special Category data is optional. 

Any sensitive personal information is received as part of the nomination process and all associated personal data will be permanently destroyed on 31 December 2024 or at the request of the nominee, whichever is soonest, by the This is Engineering team. 

Data sharing

Why might you share my personal information with third parties? 

We will only share your personal information with the following third parties for the purposes of processing your application:  Earnies and its authorised agents to assist with the judging and statue creation. All our third parties will take appropriate security measures to protect your personal information in line with our policies.  We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes.  We only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions. 

Data security

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal information from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal information to those persons who are needed to appoint our Engineering Role Models. They will only process your personal information on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality. 

Data retention

How long will you use my information for? 

We will retain your personal information until 31 December 2024. This will be deleted by the This is Engineering team. We retain your personal information for that period so that we can show we have managed the nomination process fairly. After this period, we will securely destroy your nomination and related personal information. 

Rights of access, correction, erasure, and restriction

Your rights in connection with personal information 

Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to: 

• Request access to your personal information (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it. 
• Request correction of the personal information that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected. 
• Request erasure of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal information where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal information where you have exercised your right to object to processing (see below). 
• Object to processing of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes. 
• Request the restriction of processing of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal information about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it. 
• Request the transfer of your personal information to another party. 

If you want to review, verify, correct or request erasure of your personal information, object to the processing of your personal data, or request that we transfer a copy of your personal information to another party, please contact thisisengineering@raeng.org.uk   

Data protection officer

We have appointed a data privacy manager to oversee compliance with this privacy notice chris.ordanza@raeng.org.uk. If you have any questions about this privacy notice or how we handle your personal information, please contact the data privacy manager. You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) who is responsible for data protection issues in the UK. 

National Engineering Day 2022: improving lives through engineering

This is Engineering Day returned on 2 November 2022 as National Engineering Day with a focus on showcasing how engineering improves lives. 

We produced a video featuring Great British Bake Off stars, Andrew Smyth, Giuseppe Dell'Anno and Rahul Mandal showcasing how engineering and baking are interlinked. We also launched the #EngineeringCakes social media challenge which encouraged the public to bake a vegan chocolate with an inspirational engineering decoration. 

News release: “15 minutes bakers, 15 minutes!” – Three Bake Off stars join forces to create an edible, working clock to celebrate National Engineering Day

The Academy published new research revealing that the UK is an engineering powerhouse, with the profession generating up to an estimated £645bn gross value added (GVA) to the UK’s economy annually – equivalent to 32% of the country’s economic output. A map was produced highlighting that hotspots of engineering appear all over the UK, with a high proportion of local populations of Mid Ulster, West Cumbria, and Flintshire and Wrexham working in the profession. 

News release: A hotbed of innovation: New research reveals engineering adds up to an estimated £645bn to the UK’s economy annually

Over the course of the Day, and thanks to an incredible community of partners and supporters we:

• Achieved over 77 million potential impressions this year across social media, more than double last year's equivalent number.
• Trended at #3 on Twitter in the UK
• Amassed more than 200,000 video views for National Engineering Day activities 
• Organised a parliamentary reception and panel hosted by Lord Mair. The event was attended by over 70 people including nine Parliamentarians, industry partners, professional engineering institutions, Fellows and representatives from the This is Engineering campaign.
• Secured widespread media coverage including in the Metro, the Express, Daily Mirror, The Times. As well as mentions on BBC Radio 2 and a dedicated slot from Steph McGovern on her show Steph’s Packed Lunch on Channel 4

This is Engineering Day 2021

In 2021, This is Engineering Day landed at the start of COP26, when public conversations were focused on what we need to do to tackle climate change and become net zero by 2050. Through reimagined artworks, we envisioned what landscapes, seascapes, and cityscapes would look like in a net zero world in 2050. From agriculture to travel and energy to housing, we shared how engineers can mitigate the effects of climate change and help us live a more sustainable life tomorrow.

News Release: 18^th and 19^th Century artworks reworked to imagine a net zero carbon future shaped by engineering 

The Academy worked with a digital artist who reworked masterpieces by Monet, Van Gogh, Constable and Pissarro to inspire a conversation about the engineering advances that could help to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Innovations such as agricultural robots, smart thermochromic windows, vertical farms and flying taxis have been woven into the reimagined impressionist masterpieces to depict what a more sustainable world may look like in the future.

Engineer the Future Artworks

Over the course of the Day, and thanks to an incredible community of partners and supporters we:

• Achieved a total media reach of 33 million 
• Hashtags from the day were seen over 30 million times
• Set up a pop-up art installation at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, the host city for COP26
• Hosted a special Green Skills themed panel discussion as part of our COP26-linked Ask the Engineers event series
• Secured widespread media coverage including in The Mirror, The Sun, Channel 4, Radio 4, The Times, and on Steph’s Packed Lunch with engineers who feature in This is Engineering and the Great British Bake Off.

This is Engineering Day 2020

News release: Academy calls on engineering community to show young people how they can ‘be the difference’ 

This is Engineering Day 2020 saw the Academy’s plans to launch a new, pandemic-proof, virtual museum: the Museum of Engineering Innovation on Google Arts and Culture, with an inaugural collection showcasing the engineering behind Paralympian Jonnie Peacock’s blade, vaccine manufacturing and Shakespearean theatre.

We also hosted five online Q&A sessions for students, attracting over 420 registrations from schools and the engineering community. The discussions were recorded and are available to view here. 

Media highlights included features on BBC World Service and Channel 4’s Steph’s Packed Lunch, and articles in the FT, The Metro, Daily Express, and Forbes.  

Engineers and engineering organisations across the country got involved in the day both online and offline. Highlights included:

• Transport for Greater Manchester provided over 170 poster sites around their network featuring the Museum QR code
• Network Rail shared campaign content on over 50 screens in stations across the UK
• Amazon re-programmed Alexa to answer questions about engineers and This is Engineering Day and created an Alexa engineering quiz, and special engineering book list.
• The Mercedes F1 Team and Lewis Hamilton created a bespoke new video for their social media accounts, which generated over 836K views and 316K likes

This is Engineering Day 2019

In 2019, we hosted our very first This is Engineering Day on 6 November 2019, in the middle of Tomorrow’s Engineers Week, a day to raise awareness of what engineers really do and celebrate those who are shaping the world we live in.

To challenge the narrow public perception of engineers and engineering, we launched a new public image library of more representative images of engineers, a new Instagram channel @ThisisEngineering, and a challenge to help us change image search results for the word ‘engineer’.

Engineers and engineering organisations across the country got involved in the day both online and offline:

• Over 130 organisations signed a pledge to increase the public visibility of more representative images of engineers and engineering
• Over 780 images were dontated to our free engineering photo library by over 40 partner organisations
• Amazon Alexa answered questions about This is Engineering Day and the role of engineers, and Amazon ran engineering-focused tours of Amazon’s fulfilment centres
• Network Rail showcased real images of engineers on 60 screens across 15 stations in the UK, and across the Virgin train network
• Facebook created and promoted new engineering video content featuring their engineers
• Google hosted an engineering takeover at its Portsmouth Digital Garage
• Celebrities including F1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton, author and present Konnie Huq, astronaut Tim Peake and Great British Bakeoff finalist Andrew Smyth marked the day on social media, helping #ThisisEngineering reach over 12 million people on 6 November alone