Our Foundation Review 2016 outlines the impact we’re making in becoming one of the world’s leading engineering research and education charities.
Download the review: Foundation Review 2016.pdf.
Income for the Foundation, which comes from Lloyd’s Register, the trading group, gift-aiding a proportion of its profits and from investments, was £29 million for the 2015/16 financial year, and grants awarded were £34.6 million (compared to £12.7 million in the previous year). In 2015 there was a renewed call on charities to demonstrate efficiency to maximise their contribution to society. The Foundation has demonstrated its efficiency, with 96% of expenditure during the year committed to direct charitable activities.
“Now in our third full year of operation we are seeing the Foundation continue to increase the scale of its grant funding strategy, with grants awarded in the year more than doubling year on year. The 2014-2020 funding strategy that we set out two years ago has given us focus to deliver a balanced portfolio of support to meet society’s needs,” says Thomas Thune Andersen, Chairman of the Foundation.
The major grants made by the Foundation during the year were a £10 million commitment to the National University of Singapore (NUS) to establish a world institute with an Asian focus on the public understanding of risk; a grant of £10 million to Ove Arup and Partners International Ltd for a joint programme with the Foundation to build resilience in critical infrastructure; and a £10 million grant as a founding partner of the Alan Turing Institute to develop research and education in the area of data-centric engineering.
The review describes the Foundation’s main activities over the year to drive impact and excellence in pursuit of its charitable purpose – to make the world a safer place for the benefit of society. Impacts highlighted in the review include:
- 2,029 copies of our two foresight reviews downloaded or provided in hard copy
- Sophie Damy from Imperial College won an EPSRC £54,000 grant on her LRF-funded PhD research
- Our research grants supported 124 PhD students
- Our funding trained 283 RNLI lifeboat volunteer crew members from 35 lifeboat stations which launched 4,695 times and saved 4,271 lives
- Our grants reached 23 countries, plus there are additional international relationships developed by grant holders.
- Articles written for The Conversation by the Foundation-funded science editor have been read over 6 million times
- 710 National Coastwatch Institution watchkeepers at 52 UK stations trained for new radio operator’s certificate
To download a copy of the Foundation Review 2016 click here.