More than 130 guests from across the engineering, science and business communities attended the EIBF Annual Dinner in May 2025.
Dozens of Sainsbury Management Fellows were joined by university enterprise partners and business dignitaries at the event in Westminster.
This year marks 38 years since the launch of the Sainsbury Management Fellows (SMF) scholarship programme, which has seen more than 424 talented engineers study for MBAs at world-leading business schools. Over that time, SMFs have started more than 300 new companies worth over £5 billion, helping to create more than 21,000 new jobs.
Having founded the Sainsbury Management Fellows Scholarship in 1987, Lord Sainsbury of Turville used his speech at the annual dinner to reflect on the programme’s success and an ‘outstanding’ last 12 months.
He said: “It’s encouraging to reflect on what has clearly been an outstanding year for the Sainsbury Management Fellows.
“Tonight, we have much to celebrate — not only the continued success of our longstanding engineering MBA scholarship programme, but also the exciting launch of the Sainsbury Science Management Fellows Scholarship.
“I hope that the new Science MBA Scholarship programme will be as successful as the engineering scheme which we started 38 years ago. At that time, the purpose was to fund a small number of young engineers to go abroad to get MBAs. We hoped that learning business skills would help them set up their own high-tech businesses or get to the top of large UK companies.
“What began as a simple scholarship programme has, thanks to your passion and enthusiasm, grown into a very successful organisation. Today, it inspires young people by showcasing the exciting and rewarding career paths that combine engineering and business — and now, with science added to the mix, the possibilities are more dynamic than ever.”
Speaking specifically about the new science scholarship, Lord Sainsbury added: “We know that science graduates already play a critical role in strengthening the UK economy by driving innovation, developing new technologies, and fostering economic growth through research and development.
“Although it’s difficult to determine the exact proportion of new UK businesses founded by scientists, data from the Office for National Statistics shows that the ‘professional, scientific, and technical’ sector — which encompasses many science-related enterprises — accounted for 15.3% of all businesses registered in the UK in 2024 and has consistently been the largest broad industry group since 2013. By equipping scientists with MBA business skills, we are making a strategic investment in the UK’s future.”
David Falzani MBE, President of EIBF, also delivered a speech looking back at the successes of the past year.
He said: “It’s a real pleasure to have you here tonight as we celebrate what has been an exceptional year — a year of growth, innovation, and meaningful impact.
“For nearly 40 years, thanks to the foresight and generosity of our founder, Lord Sainsbury of Turville, we’ve empowered engineers to pursue world-class MBAs. This has built a remarkable network of over 400 Sainsbury Management Fellows, who are helping to drive UK industry forward. And this past year, we’ve taken bold new steps.”
David added: “This year has been all about expansion - along with the new scientist MBA scholarship, and the five new UK schools, we also had a major boost to our support for university competitions. By offering prizes exclusively for our target audience in university enterprise competitions, we discovered an exciting and scalable way to introduce business topics to student engineers and scientists.
“I’m pleased to report we now partner with 50 universities, who help promote the scheme, and we now sponsor 60 competitions for both science and engineering students, engaging with over 5,000 STEM students.”