The 1851 Royal Commission’s Industrial Fellowships scheme
The Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 gives fellowships and grants for top level science and industrial research, as well as industrial design. Over 25 awards are made each year which, together with a number of Special Awards, total more than £1.6m in value.
Originally set up to stage the Great Exhibition, the Royal Commission was kept in being to invest the Exhibition's substantial profit. It first acquired the site in South Kensington on which the three great museums, the Royal Albert Hall, Imperial College and other colleges now stand, and it continues to own and manage the freehold of most of this estate. When the development of the estate was complete, in 1891, the Commission then set up the research awards programme which runs to this day. Alumni include no fewer than 12 Nobel Laureates.
As part of its science and engineering awards scheme the 1851 Royal Commission offers up to 8 Industrial Fellowships a year to the country's brightest young engineering employees wanting to engage in research. These are worth up to as much as £80,000 over a three year programme (usually leading to a PhD) in salary contributions and grants.
As well as the financial value, the benefits to a company include not only the research itself and the cachet involved with employing a Royal Commission Fellow, but also the development of links with a university. Effectively this is an opportunity for a company to gain an extra researcher who in turn will benefit from the career development associated with focused R & D in pursuit of a higher degree, enhanced by the travel that the Royal Commission funds as part of the scheme. The Royal Commission itself has no claim on Intellectual Property and is motivated simply by its altruistic aim to 'extend the influence of art and science upon productive industry'.
Full details of the Industrial Fellowships and all the Commission's awards are available on its website http://www.royalcommission1851.org.uk
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