Judging the awards

MEED’s core values of integrity, honesty and transparency are central to the MEED Quality Awards for Projects in association with Ernst & Young. It is also important that the awards programme is representative of the GCC and its expertise, and celebrates the talent within the region as much as it lauds international standards of excellence.

The MEED Quality Awards panel of judges represents the six states of the GCC. The judges are all important figures in their countries’ engineering communities and have followed robustly defined criteria in guiding the selection of national winners showcased in this supplement.

When examining Awards entries, the judges looked at the economic and social feasibility of the projects, their design and architecture, as well as their engineering and sustainability.

When looking at the feasibility of the schemes, each judge examined the project’s impact on employment and job creation, as well as other economic and social benefits to local communities. The innovative nature of each scheme was noted, as were the use of traditional methods and materials, new technologies, and sustainability of the architecture installed.

The engineering innovations, methodology and problem-solving that went into the development of each project were also evaluated by the judges. Sustainability, an aspect emphasised by many entrants, was measured through each project’s impact on the local environment and population over time. The judges looked at how well schemes handle their waste management, power generation needs and water reuse, and how they measure up to international standards.