The Royal Academy of Engineering and WMG (at the University of Warwick) are inviting entries for a new annual award to ‘celebrate collaboration between UK academics and industry’. With a cash prize of £25,000, the Bhattacharyya Award will be presented to the team that best demonstrates how industry and universities can work together.

The Bhattacharyya Award is funded by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and was announced in July 2019 as a tribute to the late Professor Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya, the Regius Professor of Manufacturing at the University of Warwick and founder of WMG.

Starting his career as a graduate apprentice at Lucas Industries, Lord Bhattacharyya became Britain’s first Professor of Manufacturing; and having seen first-hand how slowly academic advances were translated into real business and social change, he founded WMG in 1980 to “help business innovate and help university researchers change our lives”.

Professor Dame Ann Dowling, the immediate past-president of the Royal Academy of Engineering, will chair the judging panel. She said: “Lord Bhattacharyya was a strong advocate of an effective industrial strategy, seeking a revitalisation of skills policy, a growth in apprenticeships, a focus on the impact of research and training, and technology partnerships between industry and universities.

“We hope that this new award will showcase best practice in developing effective collaborations between universities and industry — and inspire productive new partnerships in the future.”

Entries for the Bhattacharyya Award must be submitted by 4pm on Monday 31 May 2021. Full details of the selection criteria and how to apply are available at the web site (www.raeng.org.uk/grants-prizes/grants/support-for-research/bhattacharyya-award/how-to-apply).