Our campaign
As we celebrate our 50th anniversary in 2026, it remains important that the Fellowship embodies the full breadth and diversity of engineering excellence. In July 2020 we set a goal to elect more new Fellows from groups currently underrepresented in the Fellowship through our Fit for the Future campaign.
To achieve this ambition, we raised the number of Fellows that can be elected in any one year from 50 to 60 and set an aspiration that at least half of all candidates elected each year will be from the below target groups. We sought to elect more outstanding candidates who:
- are from underrepresented groups, including women, Black, Asian and minority ethnic, LGBTQ+ and disabled engineers
- have come into engineering via vocational and non-traditional routes
- are achieving excellence at an earlier career stage than is typical
- work in emerging technologies and new industries, including areas that are important to address major societal challenges.
The campaign successfully exceeded its ambition, with more than 50% of Fellows elected during the initiative coming from underrepresented groups.
As a result, the initiative has now been fully embedded into the Academy's business-as-usual Fellowship processes. It continues to drive nominations of outstanding engineers from a broader range of backgrounds, including women, disabled and LGBTQ+ engineers, those from ethnic minority backgrounds, non-traditional educational pathways and emerging industries, as well as engineers who have achieved excellence at an earlier career stage than has traditionally been recognised.