Celebrating its 55th anniversary in 2024, the MacRobert Award, the UK’s longest running and most prestigious prize for engineering innovation, continues to attract a high calibre of submissions each year. With a £50,000 prize, gold medal and opportunity to sit amongst an illustrious group of winners including Rolls Royce, Raspberry Pi and Ceres Power, the MacRobert Award judging panel has the unenviable task of selecting just three finalists each year to be publicly recognised for their extraordinary innovations.
Once an organisation is shortlisted as a finalist, the MacRobert Award judges take part in site visits to meet each team, explore the facilities, and get under the skin of each innovation. Following the recent announcement of the 2024 MacRobert Award winner, we look back at this year’s judges’ visit to each of our 2024 finalists and discover more about what made each innovation so exceptional.
University of Oxford, AstraZeneca and partners
The MacRobert Award judges arrived in Oxford for the first of a week-long set of visits to each of the three 2024 MacRobert Award finalists. Proceedings kicked off with an introduction to team members from each of the organisations involved in the partnership. In a pre-recorded message from Professor Sir John Bell, Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford University, the judges were told that “the COVID-19 pandemic was an unprecedented global crisis that required equally unprecedented solutions”. Enter Oxford University, Astra Zeneca and partners, and their revolutionary vaccine manufacturing innovation.
Dr Adam Ritchie, Senior Vaccinologist at the Jenner Institute, University of Oxford, told judges that over three billion doses of this vaccine were produced and distributed between 2020 and 2022, making it the largest viral vector manufacturing campaign in history. This remarkable achievement was made possible by a combination of innovative manufacturing technology, rapid scale-up, and a globally distributed production network. Over the next few hours, the MacRobert Award judges would understand exactly how they were able to develop a vaccine at unprecedented speed, or as Richard Turner, Executive Director at AstraZeneca, put it “how they built the plane while it was flying!”
The judges learned that several factors were involved in innovation’s success including the speed of production, the volume of doses produced, the low cost of the vaccine, and its geographical distribution. These elements were crucial in ensuring that the vaccine could have a significant impact on controlling the pandemic. However, at the core of this success was the innovative manufacturing technology developed by the team behind the vaccine. This technology meant it only needed two tablespoons of bacteria in a single laboratory to be developed in bioreactors in factories across five continents to make millions of doses per batch in a matter of months.
Dr Ritchie explained that the consortium’s ability to streamline the process was the key differentiator - the complex nature of competitors’ manufacturing process meant that only a limited number of facilities across Europe and USA could produce the vaccine. The judges were particularly impressed to learn that the facility at the Serum Institute of India was created within a record 4 months – from an empty shell in November 2019 to a fully equipped, operational laboratory by April 2020.
When assessing an innovation, MacRobert Award judges are always keen to see how the technology will be applied in the future. So, what’s next? The relative ease of the process means it continues to be used to manufacture vaccines against a range of infectious disease threats and support future pandemic preparedness. Recent applications of the consortium’s vaccine manufacturing innovation includes the manufacture of an Ebola vaccine for the World Health Organisation in response to an outbreak in Uganda in 2022. Incredibly, this was delivered in just 81 days.
The presentation by the Oxford team had got the MacRobert finalist site visits off to a strong start – the judges left thoroughly impressed by the consortium's achievements. Their visit highlighted not only the groundbreaking innovation behind the vaccine's rapid development and mass production, but also the broader implications for the future of global healthcare.
What did the judges think?
This technology, initially developed in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, has fundamentally transformed the world of vaccine production. It not only revolutionised the way vaccines are produced but also opened the door for their rapid development in the future. The presentation showcased an outstanding achievement, marked by significant societal benefit, unparalleled innovation, and a capacity for scaling production that is truly unprecedented.
By setting a new standard for vaccine production, this team has demonstrated that through a combination of expertise, collaboration, and a sense of urgency, even the most daunting challenges can be overcome. The judges were left with a profound appreciation of this innovation, recognising it as a pivotal moment in the history of vaccine development. It is clear that this breakthrough will shape the future of pandemic preparedness and vaccine manufacturing across the globe, ensuring that the world is better equipped to face future health crises.
Dr Alison Vincent CBE FREng, MacRobert Award judge
About the MacRobert Award
The MacRobert Award is the UK’s longest running and most prestigious prize for engineering innovation. The winning team is presented with a £50,000 prize, a gold medal, national publicity, and a weekend away at Douneside House in the heart of the MacRobert Trusts estate in Aberdeenshire.
Nominations for the 2025 MacRobert Award are now open until 31 January 2025. Please contact Patrick Woodcock, MacRobert Award manager, on 02077 660 630 or [email protected] should you wish to discuss putting forward a nomination.