Award Schemes (Hansard, 17 March 2003)

§ Ms Hewitt

The Department of Trade and Industry promotes the following awards:

BAFTA Interactive Awards

DTI has, in the past two years, sponsored categories at the annual BAFTA Interactive Awards. These awards recognise and reward creative talent in interactive media. In 2001. DTI sponsored the category for the BAFTA Award for Online Game and in 2002, sponsored the BAFTA Award for Console Game.

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The Department has also sponsored awards at smaller trade association events over the past two years. For example, the International Visual Communications Association (IVCA) Awards and the British Interactive Media Association Awards, as well as the Best use of Broadband Award at the annual BizNet Awards run by the IVCA.

The British Computer Society Awards

The DTI has, for the last 10 years, sponsored the British Computer Society (BCS) awards. The BCS Annual IT awards recognise both IT excellence and benefit to business and society. The awards are open to any project developed in the field of IT in the UK, and participating organisations who make the final are notified some two to three weeks in advance of the awards ceremony. The overall winners are then announced at the annual awards ceremony. The 38,000 members of the BCS are notified of the entrants, finalists and winners and there is coverage in the press and IT journals.

The Castle Award

The DTI run the Castle Award scheme for employers who have made significant progress in bridging the pay gap between the sexes. The award, in the form of a trophy, was given for the first time in December last year. The next presentation will take place this year in December.

e-Commerce Awards

The DTI, though UK online for business, is a sponsor of the annual e-Commerce Awards run by Interforum over recent years. The Awards celebrate innovative business uses of Information and Communications Technology.

Nominations and applications begin in the spring each year. National coverage is achieved through regional awards that lead to a national award event in the autumn when category winners are publicly announced—all competitors attend that event to hear the results. Web and local media coverage has been enhanced by sponsorship from the Daily Express (2001 and 2002) and the Sunday Times Enterprise Network (2003).

Employer of the Year 2001

The DTI co-sponsored an award for Employer of the Year 2001 (together with the charity Parents at Work and Lloyds TSB). This award "recognised employers who help their employees juggle their work and home life". The awards covered the UK as well as separate categories for regions and nations; there were separate awards for small, medium and large employers. Winners were announced on 28 November 2001.

ITBeat Competition

ITBeat is a competition designed for girls 11–16 years of age to engage them in information technology. The intention behind the competition is to help overcome the often negative perceptions of IT which deter many girls from pursuing the subject in education or as a potential career path. More details can be found at www.itbeat.com.

ITBeat is managed by e-Skills UK, the former national training organisation for IT and telecoms. The DTI has provided a £40,000 contribution to the costs of running ITBeat. The rest of the costs were to be met by 519W industry sponsorship. The Secretary of State for Trade and Industry helped to launch ITBeat in November 2002 through a contribution to the launch press notice.

In total 852 girls registered for the competition, with 300 finalists being invited to attend the event. The finalists come from around the country including Yorkshire, Lancashire, Suffolk, Wales and Scotland. The event took place on 7 March at the Science Museum.

Metrology for world class manufacturing

In 2001 the DTI sponsored Measurement awards within "Metrology for world class manufacturing", with the themes:

Frontier Science and Measurement
Innovative Metrology
Measurement for Manufacturing Excellence
Champions of Metrology
Materials Measurement

These awards were made to the winning participants at the September 2001 award ceremony and also made public in that year. There were no awards made within 2002.

The Queen's Award for Enterprise

The DTI supports the Queen's Awards for Enterprise. The Queens Awards is an interdepartmental scheme and the responsible minister is the Prime Minister, advised by an Advisory Committee chaired by the Head of the Home Civil Service. The Queen's Awards were instituted by Royal Warrant in 1965, as "The Queen's Awards to Industry". All organisations—large, medium or small—which operate regularly as a `business unit' of the UK economy, and which can meet the criteria, are eligible to apply; they do not need to be sponsored or nominated and usually apply on their own behalf.

The Queen's Award has three separate categories: International Trade, which recognises and rewards not only export earnings but any return on overseas investment; Innovation, which covers marketing, sales and support associated with technological innovation; and Sustainable Development, which spans environmental, social, and economic sustainability. The common theme across all three categories is that successful applicants must be able to demonstrate commercial success.

Successful applicants are notified in March to allow the media to prepare publicity, under embargo, ahead of the public announcement on 21 April; The Queen's personal birthday. In early April, all unsuccessful applicants receive feedback on the assessment of their applications. The names of all the winners are published in a supplement to the London Gazette, they appear on The Queen's Awards website (www.queensawards.org.uk), and are listed in special supplements in The Times, Financial Times, and other broadsheet newspapers.

Following the announcement, in April, winners are usually invited to a celebratory reception, attended by a member of the Royal family, to mark their success. Later in the year, winners are invited to send three representatives to a reception given by HM The Queen at Buckingham Palace. There is also a formal presentation ceremony, usually during the summer, at the winners' premises by the Lord-Lieutenant of the County as The Queen's representative. All of these events help to 520W generate national and regional coverage. The Awards consist of a Grant of Appointment and a presentational crystal bowl engraved with the Award Emblem.

The Rosalind Franklin Award

The DTI is promoting the Rosalind Franklin Award competition, which was announced last year by the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry to recognise the contribution of Rosalind Franklin to 20th century science. The Secretary of State officially launched the competition on 13 September 2002. It is being run by the Royal Society and encompasses all areas of science, engineering and technology. The Award consists of a medal and a cash award of £30,000 to be spent by the recipient on equipment, study tours or other research related activities. The winner of the first Award will be announced in the early part of 2003.

The competition is open to both men and women who achieve excellence in their field. Therefore, the Award will help further the aims of the Department in: Increasing the participation of women in SET Improving the overall international ranking of the UK's science and engineering base

STEP Solutions: Best Electronic Engineer (BEE) Awards 2002

The DTI, in conjunction with STEP (Shell Technology Enterprise Programme) promoted the competition for the Best Electronic Engineer, 2002. The BEE final was in three key stages: agencies who had arranged electronic engineering projects nominated one candidate for consideration; Ten candidates were selected to present their achievements at an event in Newcastle on 10 October; Five students were selected to run an exhibition at the UK final at Church House, one of which was awarded the BEE prize.

The cost of the Newcastle Final and the UK Final exhibition was £6,000. New Electronics sponsored the BEE prize of £1,000 and gave extensive coverage to the events in its Campus Edition. DTI tied in the events to the Department's overall promotion strategies, including the launch of the Accesstoknowledge website (www.accesstoknowledge.co.uk).

Sunday Times 50 Best Companies to Work for 2001 and the Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work for 2002

DTI supports the research for this annual list and allocated £370,000 over three years in 1999. The DTI renewed its funding for the research for the 2003 list and is exploring options for 2004.

All organisations employing over 250 employees are eligible and, depending on size, approximately 10 per cent. of the work force will be surveyed. Results are announced at the Gala Winner Event hosted in February or March and a press release is produced post event, with a colour supplement circulated in the Sunday Times following the event.

Young Electronics Designer Awards (YEDA)

YEDA is aimed at young people between the ages of 12–25, at school, college or university. Students are invited to design and develop a commercially viable electronics-based device or system for use in an everyday context. Entries are judged on originality, satisfying a genuine need and market and manufacturing potential.

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The proposed targets for this year's competition as a result of DTI support is expected to be:

3,500 schools registering
500 projects entered
750 students participating (23 per cent. girls)
350 projects qualifying for regional awards finals

The DTI has supported YEDA financially for three years, support for YEDA 2001 amounted to £30,000, for YEDA 2002 amounted to £36,500, for 2003 contributing £25,000.