This award is the highest honour that the Society bestows. It will be made to a leading individual for their major contribution to the success of engineering for agriculture and the rural sector in Europe. It is expected that the winner will, in general, be a leading light in the industry, have strong associations with industry and/or will have made a contribution to engineering innovation that has been widely recognised by governmental or other organisations.

The award will be presented at the AgEng conferences sponsored by the Society. These conferences are currently biennial, but the Society will consider seeking nominations and making an award in intermediate years if there is an appropriate EurAgEng conference planned. If no suitable nomination is received then the Award of Merit will not be made.

The Award takes the form of a cast bronze replica statuette and is entitled Earth Man Tool and Sky. The original statue was made in oak and stood about 2.7m tall in the Mansion at Wrest Park, Silsoe, Bedfordshire, UK where the National Institute of Agricultural Engineering (NIAE) which was later to become Silsoe Research Institute (SRI), was based.

It was sculpted by Lee Grandjean and unveiled on 9 July 1984 by Prof Ron Bell (the then Director) to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of the NIAE. Following the closure of SRI in March 2006 the statue was returned to the sculptor, and the Director (Bill Day) and Governors of Silsoe Research Institute arranged for the sculptor to prepare the statuette of which several copies have been cast and donated to EurAgEng to form the basis of the Award of Merit.

Award of Merit 2010

Nominations are now invited for the Award of Merit 2010, to be presented at AgEng2010 which will be held 6-8 September 2010 at Clermont-Ferrand, France. A Nomination Form can be downloaded by clicking on the link.

Award of Merit 2008

The Award of Merit was presented at AgEng2008 to Dipl Ing Michael Teich, an engineer who had recently retired after 39 years of service from the leading tractor company, John Deere. In the picture, we see Dipl Ing Michael Teich (right) receiving the “Earth Man Tool and Sky” replica statuette from EurAgEng President Prof Florentino Juste (left).

Award of Merit 2006

At AgEng2006, Ray Clay, recently retired from JCB, was the inaugural recipient of the Award of Merit for his work on JCB’s Fastrac. The picture shows Award of Merit winner Ray Clay (right) with Prof Bill Day (left) the outgoing EurAgEng President, and Prof Aad Jongebreur (centre) the incoming EurAgEng President.