The Wolfson Economics Prize is a £250,000 economics prize, the second largest economics prize in the world after Nobel. The Wolfson Prize is sponsored by The Baron Wolfson of Aspley Guise, CEO of retailer Next plc, and run in partnership with the think tank Policy Exchange. The Prize invites new thinking to address major economic policy issues that aren't already subject to significant public discourse. The Prize has been run on four occasions in 2012, 2014, 2017 and 2021. The 2012 Prize was a contest for proposals on how the Eurozone could be safely dismantled. The contest ended on 5 July 2012, when the Capital Economics team, led by Roger Bootle, won the prize. The 2014 Prize asked the question "How would you deliver a new Garden City which is visionary, economically viable, and popular?” It was won by David Rudlin of urban design consultancy, URBED. The question for the 2017 Wolfson Economics Prize was "How can we pay for better, safer, more reliable roads in a way that is fair to road users and good for the economy and the environment?” It was won by Gergely Raccuja, a graduate transport planner at Amey. For the 2021 edition, the Prize question is "How would you design and plan new hospitals to radically improve patient experiences, clinical outcomes, staff wellbeing and integration with wider health and social care?"
2021 Prize
Launch The 2021 Wolfson Economics Prize was launched on 25 February 2021, and looks at hospital planning and design.
Panel of judges Six judges will review entries to determine the finalists and the eventual winner of the £250,000 Prize. These are as follows:
Chair: Lord Ajay Kakkar, Professor of Surgery at University College London and Director of the Thrombosis Research Institute Dr Brian Donley MD, Chief Executive of the Cleveland Clinic London Dame Elaine Inglesby-Burke CBE, former Chief Nurse at the Northern Care Alliance Dame Laura Lee, Chief Executive of Maggie's Robert A.M. Stern, Founding Partner of Robert A.M. Stern Architects Nigel Wilson, Chief Executive, Legal & General
Finalists Source:
Living Systems by AB Rogers Design Starfish Hospitals by Deirdre King with contributor David Leonard of Leonard Design Architects The Smart ED by Susan M Robinson, James Lennon, Ciaran Rymer, Roderick Mackenzie, and Ed Wilson The Well-Placed Hospital by Andy Black, Anthony Farnsworth, MAAP Architects and Fleet Architects Creating Complete Hospitals by John Simpson Architects, Ruggles Mabe Studio Architecture + Interiors, Create Streets and Create Streets Foundation, Hervey Wilcox and Natalie Ricci
2017 Prize
Launch The 2017 Wolfson Economics Prize was launched on 13 October 2016 and looked at the future of roads. The full question was "How can we pay for better, safer, more reliable roads in a way that is fair to road users and good for the economy and the environment?”
Scope of submissions The organisers determined that submissions should focus on:
ways existing and future roads can be improved through increased investment, rather than replaced by alternative forms of transport investment that is paid for by the revenue it generates and not by increasing the burden of costs on the road user linking income and investment ideas that make road use easier and quicker environmental benefits the possibilities of new technology, including fuel types and autonomous vehicles answers that can garner public and political support
Panel of judges The panel of judges who decided the award is as follows:
Chair: Sir John Kingman, Chairman elect of Legal & General and former Permanent Secretary of HM Treasury Lord Alistair Darling, former Chancellor of the Exchequer Isabel Dedring, Global Transport Leader at Arup and former London Deputy Mayor for Transport Lord Daniel Finkelstein, leading British political commentator and associate editor at The Times newspaper Bridget Rosewell OBE, an economist specialising in infrastructure development
Winner Gergely Raccuja of Highways England won the prize with the input of the RAC Foundation
2014 Prize
Launch On 14 November 2013, Simon Wolfson announced that he intended to offer a new £250,000 Prize to the entrant who best answers the question "How would you deliver a new Garden City which is visionary, economically viable, and popular?" He had previously expressed an interest in this topic in an article in The Times on 4 December 2012, and garden cities had in 2012 been cited as credible responses to the UK's housing shortage by both David Cameron and Nick Clegg, the UK's Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister respectively. The deadline for submissions to the 2014 Prize was Monday 3 March 2014. Entrants were asked to submit an essay on the topic of up to 10,000 words (plus a 1,000 word non-technical summary).
Panel of judges The panel of judges who would decide on the award is as follows:
Trevor Osborne FRICS, Trevor Osborne Property Group (chair of the judges) Professor Denise Bower, Professor of Engineering at the University of Leeds David Cowans, Group Chief Executive of Places for People Pascal Mittermaier, Director of Sustainability for Europe, Middle East and Africa, Lend Lease Tony Pidgley, Chief Executive of Berkeley Group
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
