Catz Dean and Tutorial Fellow in Materials Science Awarded Competitive Ingenious Grant
Catz Dean and Tutorial Fellow in Materials Science, Susie Speller, has been awarded one of 16 competitive Ingenious grants, designed to inspire the next generation of young engineers.
The Ingenious grant programme was launched in 2007. This 2025 round of grants, funded by the Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology, amounts to £30,000.
Susie Speller’s project, named Superconductors Inc., introduces pre-GCSE pupils to the world of engineering, in the form of an immersive and challenging game. Teams of KS3 pupils are tasked to design and run the most successful start-up business. This three-hour mission involves buying, processing, and selling materials for profit, with bite-sized educational content embedded throughout.
Following a successful pilot, a 2025-26 national tour will bring this project, and Susie’s access mission, to schools throughout the UK. The project also includes follow-up workshops and will train engineering students and postdocs in public engagement, while reaching underrepresented groups in STEM and promoting engineering careers. This achievement highlights Susie’s ongoing commitment to widening participation in STEM, following the award of her Public and Community Engagement Fellowship in 2024.
Ingenious Panel Chair, Pete Lomas FREng, commented: “With critical skills shortages in engineering, it is vital that we signpost the opportunities that exist and encourage young people to consider a career in one of the diverse range of engineering disciplines that exist […] Congratulations to all our 2025 awardees. I’m looking forward to following their activities and the impact they will have on their participants and the engineers alike.”
Susie Speller’s project joins an impressive programme of UK-based engineering initiatives. We look forward to the upcoming national tour.
Susie Speller leads a research group specialising in superconducting materials. Alongside teaching Materials Science undergraduates and supervising postgraduate research, she co-directs the Centre for Applied Superconductivity, and continues to publish prolifically in her field.
To read more about Susie Speller’s research and publications, please click here.
More information about the project is available here.