Jacquelien Scherpen is happy with the nomination. What is her ambition if she were to win this prize? "If I were to win the Prince Friso Engineering Award 2023, I would like to inspire others - especially all young people, men and women - to get into technology. So that we can work on tackeling the major social transitions together."

The winner will be announced on Wednesday March 15 on Engineer Day. “The three finalists are all top engineers,” says KIVI director Miguel Delcour. "It doesn't surprise me that all three are women. Technology has long ceased to be a man's world.'

Public Prize

In addition to a jury prize, a public prize will also be awarded. Everyone can vote for his or her favorite finalist. From Tuesday 14 February, the portraits of the three finalists will be available on www.kivi.nl/dagvandeingenieur and the public vote will start. The polls are open until Monday 13 March.

The Prince Friso Engineering Award is being awarded for the ninth time this year. With the prize, the Royal Institute of Engineers (KIVI) wants to make excellent engineers and their work visible. The winner may call themselves Engineer of the Year for a year.

Last year, Marijn van Rooij, co-founder and CTO of the Groningen startup Ocean Grazer, which is developing a smart system for energy storage on the seabed, won. The winner of the public award was Nikéh Booister, water expert at engineering firm Sweco.

KIVI, the professional association of engineers in the Netherlands, also awards a prize to the best student team in the field of technology for the second year in a row. The three finalists are Green Team Twente, which is building a hydrogen-powered car; Core Changemakers (TU Eindhoven), who are committed to recycling e-waste; and !mpact (TU Eindhoven), which is developing cell therapy for an autoimmune disease that causes vascular inflammation.

Day of the engineer

On Wednesday, March 15, 2023, KIVI will award the prize for the ninth time. Engineers are eligible for this prize who distinguish themselves in their work in the four competences: expertise, innovative capacity, entrepreneurship and social impact. The prize is named after Prince Friso, who was an aerospace engineer and a member of KIVI.

Attention for engineers

There is no way we can imagine a world without engineers. Even in the oldest history, it was the inventions of engineers that led to innovations. The engineer traditionally links his scientific knowledge with the practical challenges that our society demands. The engineer is an essential factor in more and more application areas. There are many examples.

For example, the healthcare engineer with his scanners, radiation systems, but also prostheses, even manufactured in modern 3-D printers, is of enormous value. The impact of engineers in the space sector is visible in aviation, but also in climate developments, the predictive value of impending natural disasters, but also for the irrigation of dry areas and the monitoring of the quality of the dikes. Our communication, which knows no boundaries, would not be possible without satellite traffic. Yet the profession of engineer in the Netherlands, unlike Germany, Belgium and France, for example, does not receive the appreciation it deserves. KIVI therefore advocates cherishing the title of Engineer (ir/ing) instead of just using Master of Science.
With the Day of the Engineer and the Prins Friso Ingenieursprijs, KIVI wants to put engineers in the spotlight and show their expertise and ingenuity to a wider audience.