The Royal Academy of Engineering has announced Oxford Nanopore Technologies as the winner of the 2026 MacRobert Award, the longest running and most prestigious prize for UK engineering innovation, recognising a homegrown engineering breakthrough that has transformed access to real-time genomic information across public healthcare, research, and industry.
HRH The Princess Royal, Royal Fellow of the Academy presented the team with the MacRobert Award gold medal at the Academy Awards Dinner in London on Wednesday 8 July.
For over 20 years, genomic sequencing, the process of reading the genetic instructions inside DNA or RNA, has largely relied on slow, costly and highly specialised methods that have remained out of reach for much of the world, lengthening global health crises, delaying treatment and creating further suffering for millions.
Oxford Nanopore Technologies has pioneered a solution that is set to transform global health: nanopore-sensing technology that reads DNA and RNA strands directly, in real time, without the need for complex imaging systems or controlled laboratory environments. In practice, this means diseases can be identified and acted upon in hours rather than weeks, enabling faster, more targeted responses in settings where time is critical.
Their technology is a portable, more affordable solution than existing options and accessible beyond specialist facilities, enabling analysis to take place in busy diagnostic laboratories, in the field at the site of disease outbreaks and even aboard the International Space Station.
Developed in Oxford, the technology has already been deployed in more than 125 countries, supporting local surveillance and treatment of Ebola, Zika and SARS-CoV-2. In clinical settings, its rapid analysis functionality has enabled lifesaving treatment plans, including during surgery, helping clinicians make better-informed decisions when speed and precision matter most.
As well as addressing health inequalities at an international level, nanopore technology is also showing clear potential to improve patient care in the UK. In cancer diagnostics, Queen’s University Belfast and the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust are trialling rapid sequencing to reduce tumour classification wait times from weeks to days, helping clinicians access the molecular insights they need to make faster, more informed treatment decisions.
From pinpointing antimicrobial resistant strains in a patient’s sepsis condition, to reducing diagnostic timelines from several days to a matter of hours, Oxford Nanopore is helping to make medicine more targeted, efficient and useful. As the technology continues to advance, it has the potential to become one of the most important tools in global healthcare and could one day become as ubiquitous and accessible as a microscope.
Oxford Nanopore Technologies was officially announced as the winner at the Royal Academy of Engineering’s annual Awards Dinner at the OWO, Raffles London. The team receives the MacRobert Award gold medal and a £50,000 prize, as well as a luxury weekend at the MacRobert estate in Aberdeenshire.
This year’s other two finalists for the award were London-based assistive technology company, WeWALK, for a smart cane for blind people, and Northumberland-based rail safety innovator, Transmission Dynamics, for a novel camera to detect faults in overhead power lines.
Oxford Nanopore Technologies’ win marks the second consecutive year that the MacRobert Award has recognised an Oxford-based engineering innovation, following OrganOx’s 2025 win for its pioneering liver transplantation technology. Together, the wins underline Oxford’s continued strength as a centre for globally significant research, engineering and medical innovation.
For over 55 years, the MacRobert Award has recognised engineering that combines commercial viability with genuine societal benefit, celebrating innovations that have shaped industries and changed lives.
The Oxford Nanopore Technologies team members recognised by the Award are:
- Dr Mark Bruce – Vice President, Sequencing Methods Research
- Dorothee van der Grinten – Senior Director, Chip Development
- Graham Hall – Vice President, Sequencing Development
- Dr Lakmal Jayasinghe – Chief Scientific Officer
- Ant Jones – Vice President, Engineering
- Dr Luke McNeill – Senior Director, Analytical Chemistry
- Dr Gordon Sanghera CBE – Founder
- Dr Nirmala Santiapillai - Vice President, Global Commercial Operations
- Mike Vella – Senior Director, Machine Learning
- Dr Jayne Wallace – Vice President, Nanopore Research and Protein Sequencing
- David Waterman – Senior Chief Engineer
- Dr James White – Senior Director, Technical Intelligence
Dr Lakmal Jayasinghe, Chief Scientific Officer of Oxford Nanopore Technologies, said: “We are honoured to receive the MacRobert Award, the UK’s most prestigious prize for engineering innovation. For Oxford Nanopore, this recognition reflects both the depth and breadth of engineering behind our platform and the real-world impact it is having. We’re proud to be enabling more comprehensive biological information to be made available faster and more accessibly, to researchers, clinicians and pioneers in the biopharma industry. We share this recognition with our customers and collaborators, whose work continues to demonstrate the impact of nanopore sequencing around the world.”
Announcing the winner, Dr Alison Vincent CBE FREng, Chair of the Royal Academy of Engineering MacRobert Award judging panel, said: “Oxford Nanopore is a truly deserving winner of the MacRobert Award, which has been celebrating the strength and impact of UK engineering for over 55 years. They have developed a pioneering DNA and RNA sequencing technology that is transforming our ability to understand and respond to some of the world’s most pressing health and environmental challenges, from disease surveillance to biodiversity monitoring. This is a remarkable example of UK innovation delivering real-world impact on a global scale, and I’m delighted to see the team recognised.”
Notes for editors
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First presented in 1969, the MacRobert Award is widely regarded as the most coveted in the industry, honouring the winning organisation with a gold medal and the team members with a cash prize of £50,000. The award is presented and run by the Royal Academy of Engineering, with support from its founder MacRobert Trust and the Worshipful Company of Engineers. The Award was inspired by and named in honour of Lady Rachel MacRobert (1884-1954), a geologist, suffragette and trailblazer who founded the MacRobert Trust.
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The Royal Academy of Engineering creates and leads a community of outstanding experts and innovators to engineer better lives. As a charity and a Fellowship, we deliver public benefit from excellence in engineering and technology and convene leading businesspeople, entrepreneurs, innovators and academics across engineering and technology. As a National Academy, we provide leadership for engineering and technology, and independent, expert advice to policymakers in the UK and beyond.