University receives national honour for global fire safety team

The University of Edinburgh has been awarded one of the UK’s highest honours for the pioneering and influential work of researchers who played a key role in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry.

The University has won a Queen Elizabeth Prize for Education in recognition of the Centre for Fire Safety Engineering’s education, training and research which has made built and natural environments safer around the world.

Professor Rory Hadden, Professor Luke Bisby and Dr Angus Law
Professor Rory Hadden, Professor Luke Bisby and Dr Angus Law.
Credit: Andrew Perry.

The Queen Elizabeth Prizes for Education are part of the UK’s national honours system, recognising outstanding work by UK colleges and universities which demonstrates excellence and innovation and delivers real benefit to the wider world. The winners of the sixteenth round were announced at St James’s Palace on 25 November 2025. The Prizes will be presented at an investiture ceremony in February 2026.

Founded in the early 1970s, the Centre was the first of its kind in the world. Its researchers have pioneered how fire safety engineering is taught, shed light on the causes of major tragedies, and conducted work that underpins global fire safety design, policy, regulation and innovation. Academics have helped officials unpick the causes of and learn lessons from disasters such as the Piper Alpha and Kings Cross fires in the 1980s and the collapse of the World Trade Centre in New York in 2001. More recently, Centre staff and alumni were the most cited instructed experts reporting to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry’s Final Report in 2024. Researchers have supported the development of innovative industry guidance for the net zero journey for timber structures, and are working with the likes of the UN to improve fire safety of informal settlements and refugee camps, helping to protect the most vulnerable.

“I’d like to congratulate everyone involved with Centre for Fire Safety Engineering – they truly deserve the recognition that this prestigious award signifies. For more than 50 years their extraordinary teaching, research and global diaspora of graduates have made the world a safer place. There is no better testimony to the difference a University can make than to say the Centre’s work and influence has unquestionably saved lives.”

Professor Sir Peter Mathison Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh

“I want to thank the Royal Anniversary Trust for recognising our Centre in awarding the University a Queen Elizabeth Prize for Education. For more than five decades, our Centre has been at the forefront of developing and applying new knowledge in fire science and engineering – to transform engineering practice, shape building regulations, and ensure greater protection for the public. We are deeply honoured to be associated with this prize, in recognition of the innumerable contributions of our colleagues, students, alumni, and partners over so many years, and as we continue to pioneer new developments in fire safety engineering education and research to address the many fire safety challenges of the modern world.”

Professor Luke Bisby Chair of Fire and Structures at the School of Engineering and Director of the Centre for Fire Safety Engineering
Professor Rory Hadden demonstrating a fire experiment.
Professor Rory Hadden demonstrating a fire experiment.
Credit: Andrew Perry.

First awarded in 1994, the Queen Elizabeth Prizes for Education are granted every two years by the Sovereign on the advice of the Prime Minister following a rigorous and independent process of review carried out by the Royal Anniversary Trust, an independent charity. 

“The Queen Elizabeth Prizes for Higher and Further Education celebrate the power of education to change the world for the better. This much-loved national honour recognises, at the highest level of state, outstanding work in UK universities and colleges, and the remarkable benefit they bring to our economy, society and the wider world. This year we are delighted to honour 19 institutions whose work offers an inspiring snapshot of the excellent and innovative work going on in universities and colleges across the UK. Congratulations all!”

Sir Damon Buffini Chair of the Royal Anniversary Trust

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