The Panasonic Trust Awards

On 2 November 1984, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd celebrated ten years of successful manufacturing in the UK. HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Senior Fellow of The Royal Academy of Engineering, was Guest of Honour at the event to mark this milestone during which he received the Deed for a £500,000 fund. This fund was constituted as The Panasonic Trust.

The objective of the Trust is to encourage the professional development and retraining of industrially employed engineers with an emphasis on new technologies and engineering practices. It achieves this by making grants on a selective basis to assist with the fees for the study of suitable courses at universities in the UK.

• Application form

• Instructions for applicants

Who is eligible?

To be eligible for a Panasonic Trust Award an applicant must:

• be a EU citizen or have UK permanent residence status;

• be working at the professional level in engineering in the UK, and have had several years experience at this level.

• be qualified to degree level in engineering or a closely related subject. HND/HNC qualifications can be accepted as a minimum providing the individual has substantial industrial experience;

• have membership at any grade of a professional engineering institution accredited by the Engineering Council as a licenced member institution.

Which courses are suitable?

Funding is directed at individuals wishing to study part-time modular Masters’ degree courses provided by UK universities, which are designed to develop or update knowledge and skills in new or emerging technologies and fields of engineering, manufacturing, materials science, environmental technology and IT.

Courses employing distance learning or internet based techniques as well as conventional teaching methods are also eligible.

Nature of the award

The normal level of award made by the Trust is up to 50% of the course fees. Applications are considered on the basis of funding for two modules at a time. Individuals may submit up to two applications for funding per year.

Application procedure

The Application form and instructions for applicants are available online

Applicants must be supported by both their Course Director/Tutor and line manager at their current employer to confirm that they are suitable for the course and it will benefit their professional development. This information should be submitted in electronic form by email.

Applications should be completed at least four weeks before the commencement of the course to enable a decision to be made in good time.

Selection Committee

The award of a grant is entirely at the discretion of the Selection Committee with any decision of the Committee being final on all matters.

Ian Bowbrick
Panasonic Trust

[E-mail Ian]