The UK Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) last week launched its Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation and called for entries from engineers connected with universities and research institutions in sub-Saharan African countries.

The newly launched prize was Africa’s biggest prize devoted to engineering innovation, covering all disciplines from mechanical, civil and computer to biomedical, oil and gas, mining and electronic engineering.

“Engineering is crucial to social and economic development in South Africa and internationally. The Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation aims to recognise the importance of African engineers and to stimulate innovation and entrepreneurship, while encouraging young people to become engineers by creating successful role models,” RAEng fellow and chair of the prize’s judging panel Malcolm Brinded said.

The South African judge on the panel, Dr Liesbeth Botha, added that the competition was designed to incentivise engineers to use their passion to develop innovative solutions to their country’s challenges.

“The Africa prize will demonstrate how engineering is at the heart of economic development, [through showing] how African engineers build countries, communities and economies, and put the spotlight on our education system to deliver professional engineers into the economy with the right knowledge and skills,” said Botha.

Engineers had until May 30 to submit early stage innovations, which had the potential to be scaled-up and was ready for commercialisation, for consideration.

The overall winner of the prize would receive £25 000 and all finalists’ entries would be exhibited. A shortlist of entrants would also benefit from six months of extensive mentoring, training and support in commercialising their innovations.

“By encouraging talented engineers to apply their technical and entrepreneurial skills to [solving] development challenges in South Africa and the wider continent, we can help build [a] stronger engineering capability, [which is] better equipped to develop scalable solutions to all kinds of local and regional challenges,” Brinded said.