LONDON - Collaboration, whether it's between technology-led companies and universities, or between businesses with distinct areas of expertise, is the fuel that drives innovation.

New ideas, new technologies and new products are, increasingly, forged on the interface between organizations from different disciplines, with diverse sets of skills and varying approaches to problem solving.

The Engineer Technology & Innovation Awards 2010 will turn the spotlight on the fruits of this collaborative process. Now in its fourth year, this prestigious awards scheme is run by The Engineer, in conjunction with main sponsor BAE Systems.

While the 2009 awards concentrated purely on collaboration between academia and industry, this year's competition will address the full breadth the UK's technology landscape and reward outstanding examples of collaboration wherever they occur: whether between business and academia, or between separate businesses, or, indeed, groups of universities. With awards in ten categories spanning the key sectors of engineering and technology, the search for excellence will culminate in a special lunch in December at The Royal Society in London, where the winners will be announced from a shortlist. One of the category winners will then be named as recipient of The Engineer Grand Prix Award, chosen by The Engineer's editorial team as the entry that particularly embodies the spirit of technology, innovation and collaboration. Companies and universities are equally eligible to nominate their collaborative projects.

An expert panel of judges will assess the entries against the key criteria that will be used to draw up the shortlist in each category. These will include: the degree of technical innovation involved in the entry; the value added to the entry through the collaboration between partners; the actual or potential impact of the entry on its market or end-users. For full details of how to enter visitwww.theengineerawards.co.uk