The Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 will be supporting the Engineers Without Borders UK Bursaries Programme over the coming year thanks to a special award of £8,700. The award will be used to support the continuing growth of the Bursaries Programme.

Providing small awards to enable members to realise their own ideas and ambitions, the Bursaries Programme allows young engineers to apply for funding to further their career in international development. If successful in their application, the funding can go towards research into engineering solutions, volunteering on work placements with international development organisations or training courses that will further develop their skills.

Lindsay Todman, EWB-UK's Bursaries Co-ordinator said: "In the last two years we have awarded over 40 bursaries, providing funding for a wide range of research projects and overseas placements from developing knitwear technology in Tajikistan to a rainwater harvesting project in Tanzania. This award from the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 gives us the exciting opportunity to expand the programme so that we can provide funding to support more young engineers as they undertake international development projects that benefit both the local communities in the countries where they work as well as the young engineers themselves."

The Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 offers major awards to scientists and engineers for research, development and design. Its aims are to support education for the benefit of productive industry. First established to stage the Great Exhibition in 1851, the Royal Commission's extraordinary history is founded on an inspired vision of the importance of education to economic success.

The Secretary of the Royal Commission, Malcolm Shirley, on making the award, said: "The Commissioners were not only attracted to the very worthwhile programmes of EWB-UK, they were also very impressed by the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the volunteer-led and managed organisation, and wish the Bursaries every success."

Over the past year the Bursaries Programme has been expanded to allow applications to be reviewed once a month, compared with twice a year in previous years. With the increase in reviews comes the increase of number of applications, something which has initially put pressure on funding. However, thanks to this exciting award, EWB-UK will be able to support more exciting and varied development projects to help in relieving poverty throughout the world.