The Royal Academy of Engineering has announced that OrganOx has won the MacRobert Award, the longest-running prize for UK engineering innovation, for its life-saving technology that is supporting more organ transplants and helping to cut waiting lists.OrganOx, a University of Oxford spinout, has developed two of the most complex medical devices ever designed and built in the UK. The devices preserve livers and kidneys outside the body for more than twice as long as standard cold methods —boosting transplant numbers, eliminating overnight operations for clinicians, and reducing healthcare costs. A third, patient-connected device for liver dialysis is also under development and has entered early-stage clinical trials.
The winners were presented with the MacRobert Award gold medal and a prize of £50,000 by Science Minister Lord Vallance KCB HonFREng FRS FMedSci at the Royal Academy of Engineering awards dinner on 8 July. The team also won a luxury weekend at Douneside House in the heart of the MacRobert estate in Aberdeenshire.
Chair of the MacRobert Award judging panel, Dr Alison Vincent CBE FREng, said: “Despite facing stiff competition from our other two finalists, Synthesia and Microsoft Azure Fibre, OrganOx is a worthy winner of the MacRobert Award, which has been celebrating the strength, creativity and global impact of British engineering for more than half a century. OrganOx has developed a truly game-changing and life-saving innovation that is at the forefront of efforts to increase the number of donor organs available for transplantation.”
The MacRobert Award has recognised transformative UK engineering that also demonstrates commerciality and societal benefit for more than 55 years. From EMI in 1972 for the CT scanner to Touch Bionics in 2008 for the world’s first bionic hand.
For more information about the 2025 MacRobert Award, visit the Royal Academy of Engineering's website.