The 2025 ICE East Midlands Merit Awards celebrated civil engineering talent from across the region.
Women dominated the people award categories at the 2025 ICE East Midlands Awards (EMMAs).
Celebrating civil engineering talent from across the region, the EMMAs honoured their achievements just a few days ahead of International Women in Engineering Day on 23 June.
The awards ceremony was held in Nottingham on Friday 13 June. Scientist Professor Turi King, ICE East Midlands regional chair Ian Nicholson and ICE Vice President Richard Bayfield presented the awards.
People Awards
William Kemp Award
The William Kemp Award was presented to Karen Notman from Leicestershire County Council, in recognition of her vital work in the East Midlands.
The award celebrates those who make an outstanding contribution to the promotion of civil engineering in the region.
Notman leads a dedicated team at Leicestershire County Council supporting the Midlands Highway Alliance Plus in highway, transport services and infrastructure delivery.
Due to her expertise, Karen also sits on the East Midlands Infrastructure Partnership (EMIP) steering group, providing input and expertise on transport.
EMIP aims to provide informed, strategic and objective advice on behalf of the region in respect of the critical infrastructure that underpins communities and services.
Individual of the Year Award
Gráinne Murray, delivery manager at the Environment Agency, won the Individual of the Year Award.
Murray, who recently achieved ICE Fellowship, was recognised for her long-standing work on the ICE East Midlands Committee and since autumn last year, her work representing the region on the ICE Council.
Working full time at the Environment Agency, Murray is also a member of the East Midlands Infrastructure Partnership Group, where she provides input and expertise on flood risk.
Rising Star Award
Beth Richardson, a sustainability consultant at Arup, won the Rising Star Award.
Richardson has led decarbonisation efforts across the Midlands, using carbon assessment software and collaborating with design teams to ensure low-carbon solutions are implemented on projects.
She has also mentored secondary school students and spoken on climate resilience at the Civil Engineering Society.
Regional STEM Ambassador of the Year
Emma Rhodes, technical engineer at Jean Lefebvre (UK) won Regional STEM Ambassador of the Year.
Rhodes was recognised for her commitment to STEM initiatives across Nottingham, where she created a presentation on civil engineering careers and showcased it in local schools.
Mike Barnett, head of service at Leicestershire County Council was Highly Commended in the same category.
Project awards
Carbon and Sustainability (sponsored by WM Plant Hire)
Anglian Water Services received the Merit Award for their, which covers a wide area across the East of England. This includes parts of the East Midlands, stretching from North Lincolnshire down to Essex and Suffolk.
This large-scale infrastructure project will transfer 256 million litres of water through 320km of underground interconnecting pipelines. It will enable water to move from wetter to drier areas of the region, combatting the future risk of droughts.
Highly Commended in the same category was AtkinsRéalis, Severn Trent Water and Whitehouse Construction for Nottingham’s Richard Bonington School Sustainable Drainage Solutions (SuDS) Retrofit project.
Innovation and Technical Excellence (sponsored by Winvic)
The Merit Award was presented to Galliford Try and GHD for their Storm Spill Reduction Programme: Shaft Automation Tool.
The automated shaft design tool helps investigate and reduce stormwater spills by automating complex calculations, saving time and improving efficiency.
Social Value (sponsored by Taylor Woodrow)
Lincolnshire County Council, Balfour Beatty, WSP and Colas received the Social Value Merit Award for their collaborative Social Value Project.
The Lincolnshire Highways partnership brought together individual volunteer efforts into a coordinated initiative. Using locally based staff, the partnership focused on community projects and promoted STEM through engagement with schools and colleges across Lincolnshire.
Large Project (sponsored by SOCOTEC UK)
The Large Project Award is given to exemplary projects with a value over £3m.
MWH Treatment and Severn Trent Water received the Large Project Merit Award for the Melton Mowbray Sewage Treatment Works.
The project met strict new environmental permit standards within a challenging regulatory programme, while at the same time delivering significant carbon savings through innovations in ground engineering and temporary works.
Operational staff were engaged throughout with many ‘lessons learned’ being rolled out into other asset management period projects.
Highly Commended went to Balfour Beatty, West Northamptonshire Council and WSP for the Northampton North-West Relief Road Collaboration.
The EMMA’s were sponsored by Waterman Aspen (headline sponsor) and individual category sponsors: Winvic, Socotec UK, WM Plant Hire and Taylor Woodrow.
To read details on the full list of winners, visit the ICE East Midlands webpage.
Sustainable Development Goals:
You may also be interested in
- Type
- Awards and competitions
All-girl teams dominate ICE CityZen Award 2024-2025
The three winning project pitches tackle renewable energy, community safety and sustainable infrastructure materials.
- Type
- News
ICE Fellow Dervilla Mitchell receives DBE
The former deputy chair of Arup Group has been recognised for services to engineering.
- Type
- Awards and competitions
River restoration wins new resilience prize at ICE North West annual awards
Purpose-built hospitals, electrical protection works, and a vulnerable bridge replacement were also named winners at the region’s civil engineering awards.