The IChemE Young Engineer Awards for Innovation and Sustainability will recognise and celebrate the ideas and innovation emerging in the chemical engineering profession, supporting the IChemE’s vision of engineering a more sustainable world.

We invite IChemE members across the globe aged 18-30 to submit an entry which celebrates your novel ideas in helping to reach this goal in one of the following topic areas:

• Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence
• Energy and Climate Action
• Engineering Biology
• Environmental Protection and Improvement
• Excellence in Education, Skills and Training
• Food and Drink
• Health and Wellbeing
• Materials, Mining and Minerals
• Process Safety
• Waste Valorisation and Circular Economy
• Water and Sanitation

Your entry will be based on either a new area of research/design/innovation, or a new application of a process or product.

The prize is independent of the IChemE Global Awards, although winners will be recognised as part of the awards ceremony.

If you are interested in sponsoring this event or any future events please do get in contact via yeais@icheme.org.

For more information please email yeais@icheme.org.

• Undergraduate or equivalent – members studying full time for their first degree or undertaking an apprenticeship or related qualification
• Postgraduate or equivalent – members studying for a Masters qualification, PhD or other postgraduate qualification
• Early career – members working in a chemical, process or biochemical engineering field.

There are additional topic awards and the winner will be selected from any age category.

These awards are open to all members aged 18 to 30 regardless of geographic location.

All entrants must be aged 18 to 30 at the point of submission and current members of IChemE. 

Yes. A maximum of five people per group who ideally (*) must all be in the same category**. All members of the group must be members of IChemE.

Yes. Submissions from non members will not be judged. Join IChemE today.

The deadline for submissions: 19 March 2026.

You must be a member of IChemE to be eligible to enter. If you are not yet a member, please complete your membership application.

Group entries (maximum of five in a group) will be welcomed.

1. Identify which age category of the award you are entering: undergraduate, postgraduate or early careers:
   
   
   • Undergraduate or equivalent – members studying full time for their first degree or undertaking an apprenticeship or related qualification
   • Postgraduate or equivalent – members studying for a Masters qualification, PhD or other postgraduate qualification
   • Early career – members working in a chemical, process or biochemical engineering field.
2. Choose your priority topic (you will be given an option to choose further categories that your project may align to): Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence, Energy and Climate Action, Engineering Biology, Environmental Protection and Improvement, Excellence in Education, Skills and Training, Food and Drink, Health and Wellbeing, Materials, Mining and Minerals, Process Safety, Waste Valorisation and Circular Economy or Water and Sanitation.
   
   
3. Submit your entry using Oxford Abstracts here. You will need to register for an account if you do not have one already.

Please note: you do not have to complete your application in one go. You can submit, even if some of the sections are not finished, you will get an email back telling you that your application is not finished. You will notice that there is no ‘save progress’ button but the functionality is there when you press ‘submit’.

• To ensure your submission is eligible, please use the poster template provided which can be downloaded from the submission form.
• Only entrants that have completed the submission form will be eligible for judging.

If you are successfully shortlisted you will be asked to submit a short video about your project in round 2. You will be emailed a link to the finalist submission form where you will be able to upload your video entry to a set of questions we will share with you. Please note your video should not exceed 5 minutes and the file size should not exceed 500 MB.

Scoring for round 1

Each entry will be judged against 6 criteria: 

1. Which SDG-related problem are they trying to solve: Has the entrant clearly demonstrated how a chemical, biochemical or process engineering concept can support the delivery of one of the Global Sustainable Development goals or the IChemE’s priority topics? https://www.icheme.org/sustainable-world/priority-topics/ and identified what problem they are trying to solve?
2. Is it feasible? Can their idea be delivered in practice? Has the entrant introduced a workable prototype or taken steps to ensure their solution is workable. Have they demonstrated a specific technology-readiness level (https://camfuturetech.com/what-are-technology-readiness-levels-trls/)
3. Application of chemical engineering principles: Have they demonstrated an understanding and application of chemical engineering principles (e.g. chemical processes, thermodynamics, mass and energy balances, process design etc)?
4. How will society benefit? Has the entrant clearly demonstrated the benefit to society in a qualitative or quantitative manner?
5. Is the idea innovative - what aspect of it is novel or new?
6. What challenges can they see that will affect the ability to deliver their idea into practice
7. Science communication - how visually stimulating and/or easy to access is the information on the poster? How clearly has the entrant communicated the key aims of the project?

Scoring for round 2

Finalists will be asked to submit a 5-minute video presentation to explain their project in more detail. This will be judged against 3 criteria: 

1. Has the entrant demonstrated how their project will support the delivery of one of the Global Sustainable Development goals or the IChemE’s priority topics? And have they explained how in practice it will be delivered?
2. Has the entrant clearly explained how their work will benefit society in the short, medium or longer term? And how in practice this will be delivered.
3. Science communication – how did they present? Could you follow their narrative? Were they enthusiastic and clear about what they were trying to do. Did they use props and engage you as the reviewer? Did they clearly set out the aims of their project?

We do advise you to let appropriate colleagues, lecturers etc know as you may want to gain approval for intellectual property or any commercial sensitivities with them before you submit your entry. We are sure they would be keen to support you in any way they can. 

Your entry can be based on either your own research that you have completed at any stage of your studies/career OR your own ideas of how current practices can be developed for new applications.

It is the responsibility of the entrant to ensure that they are NOT submitting commercially sensitive information.

No, you can submit work completed for any other competition or award to this prize as long as your work is repurposed into the required template. You would then need to contact the organisers of other awards to see if the reverse is true. Work is underway to align other prizes to the YEAIS awards.

If you would like to find out more about the application process and ask any questions, why not come along to a Q&A session to find out more.

Sessions TBC 

There are no financial prizes being offered. Winning entrants will receive a:

• trophy and certificate to recognise their achievement
• feature article in The Chemical Engineer
• digital badge so they can invite others to share in the success and celebrate with them on social media.

Finalists will be notified on 18 May 2026.

• Finalists will be notified on 18 May 2026.
• Announcements of winners will take place on 15 June 2026.

Not necessarily – please refer to the Terms & Conditions.

Yes, there will be several in person showcase and celebration events which will give winners, highly commended entries and finalists the opportunity to showcase their work, make new connections and network with fellow entrants and IChemE members from industry and academia. For 2026, these events will take place in the following countries:

UK – Friday 26th June – Edinburgh International Conference Centre

Australia – 27th-29th September – During Chemeca

Malaysia – Date TBC

IChemE member volunteers will dedicate their time and expertise to help with the judging and celebration event. They will rigorously assess all entries against the set criteria.

For any in person events, individual entrants will be invited to bring one guest (in a professional capacity eg lecturer, supervisor or colleague). Where a submission is made by multiple entrants, further guests may be permitted but by request. Please note that IChemE will not cover travel or accommodation costs for guests, this must be met by themselves.

For undergraduates attending an in-person event, a maximum bursary of £200 sterling or equivalent will be paid upon submission of a member expense form and supporting receipts. 

For postgraduate students and early career members attending an in-person event, a maximum bursary of £100 sterling or equivalent will be paid upon submission of a member expense form and supporting receipts. 

No, but we have curated a list of local accommodation that you may wish to book. Please email yeais@icheme.org to request this.