It’s with great pleasure that today we reveal the names of the finalists of the ACE 2024 Consultancy and Engineering Awards.

We received an abundance of exciting entries from far and wide including the cities of Norwich, Plymouth, Bristol, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Nottingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh and London to name but a few! Each entry demonstrated the excellence of individuals and companies working in our sector on projects that combined touch on every aspect of UK living. From hospitals and school buildings to rail, road and bus schemes and renewable energy creation and transmission to water and waste solutions, in 2024 our sector was busy delivering for our communities. But this is only a fraction of what they have achieved, our shortlisters also flag the great inroads our sector has made in best practice in sustainability, wellbeing and inclusion in addition to giving back to their communities. We will be sharing their stories and highlighting their contributions as the award winner celebrations unfold.

Our esteemed panel of guest judges, representing industry, associations and the media, noted that the high quality of submissions made it difficult to choose between the strong contenders and decide on the final short-listers named below.

The Apprentice of the Year shortlist is : Ewan Thomson, Katie McQuade, Tom Furlong, Joshua Lowe and Charlie Horne.

Best Innovation and Technology Project finalists are: Expedition Engineering, Useful Studio and WSP UK.

Best Social Value Project Award finalists are: Ingleton Wood, Services Design Solution, Sutcliffe and WSP UK.

Best Sustainability Project shortlisters are: AtkinsRealis, Buro Happold, Cognition Land and Water, Harley Haddow, and Ingleton Wood.

Best Transport Project finalists are: Amey, Ramboll, Tony Gee & Partners and WSP UK.

The Best UK Consultancy categories were judged by special guests from the Financial Times and New Civil Engineer. The Best Small and Micro category shortlist is: Horizon M & E Services Ltd, Useful Simple Trust, Craddys, Woolgar Hunter Ltd and Rivelin Bridge. The Best Medium UK Consultancy finalists are PJA, Sutcliffe, Harley Haddow and BWB Consulting Ltd. The Best Large UK Consultancy finalists are Waterman Group and WSP UK.

For the new award category of the Best Wellbeing Project, the chosen finalists are: BWB Consulting, Harley Haddow and Waterman Aspen.

The Emerging Professional of the Year Award shortlist is: Bianca Laura Latini, Kathryn Sykes, Christine Friel, Eilidh McDonald and Areeb Khan.

The Inclusive Employer of the Year submissions were judged by special guests including Antony Oliver from the Infrastructure Podcast and the finalists are: Waterman Aspen, WSP UK and Ramboll UK Limited.

For the Lifetime Achievement Award, the nominees are: Steve Wooler at BWB Consulting, Kamran Moazami at WSP UK, Tim Williams at Robert West Consulting, Phil Jones at PJA and Andy O'Dea Cognition Land and Water.

Along with the Winner of Best Client of the Year, the Winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award will also be announced on 30 January 2025.

We’d like to express our thanks to all the judges who were truly fantastic at scoring the entries and helping to choose finalists and winners.

We’d also like to thank all those who submitted entries, we were impressed as always by the calibre of the entries which capture great examples of the varied and wonderful projects and people in our sector. With such an amazing line up, the gala dinner where the winners will be revealed on 30 January, promises to be a great event and we look forward to welcoming friends old and new at this special occasion. We’ll be kicking off 2025 in style, at the luxurious Kensington Palace Hotel. Join us by securing your ticket here..