Toolkit and reference
Guidance for lead sponsors
What you are agreeing to, what ICE expects you to do, and how to do it without writing the report.
Who this is for:Sponsors
Being a lead sponsor is not a signature. ICE gives it a duty to mentor the candidate through the application, and names three specific things you are expected to do.
What ICE requires of a lead sponsor
Institution of Civil Engineers
- You must be an ICE Member or Fellow and registered with the Engineering Council at the same grade as, or higher than, the one the candidate is applying for.
- You have a duty to act as their mentor during the Professional Review application process.
- You should be familiar with the current ICE Professional Review process and the standards the candidate is required to meet.
- ICE's examples of what you should do: provide constructive criticism of the report, provide advice on the presentation, and arrange practice interviews.
- Your name, signature and membership number appear on the cover page of the report.
- You complete a statement of support and upload it to the sponsors portal by the deadline, before the candidate submits.
- ICE also asks candidates to notify their lead sponsor if they defer, and expects an unsuccessful candidate to discuss the reviewers' comments with you.
- Lead sponsor eligibility
- ICE Member or Fellow, registered with the Engineering Council at the same grade as you are applying for, or higherThe lead sponsor also has a duty to act as your mentor through the application, and should know the current review process.
From Incorporated and Chartered Professional Review Guidance, Institution of Civil Engineers.
Before you say yes
Two honest questions.
Are you current? The review has changed. The written element is the Communication Task, with its own current rules on timing, reference material and prohibited tools — a candidate advised about the old Written Exercise, three sponsors, or historic submission windows will prepare for the wrong thing. If you qualified some years ago, read the current Professional Review Guidance before you advise anyone.
Have you got the time? Constructive criticism of a 5,000-word report is two or three hours, properly done. Presentation advice is another hour. Practice interviews are an hour each, and one is not enough. If you cannot find that in the next four months, saying so now is much kinder than agreeing and then being unavailable.
Doing the job
- 01
Read the current guidance yourself
Download it from ICE, not from a shared drive. Check the report and appendix limits, the CPD requirements and the Communication Task rules — several have changed in recent years.
- 02
Look at their evidence before their prose
Ask them to walk you through their attribute coverage. If an area is thin, that is a conversation about experience and timing, not about writing.
- 03
Criticise the report constructively and specifically
Which paragraph has no decision in it. Which attribute you could not find. Which claim is stronger than the work supports. Do not rewrite it — it has to be their own work.
- 04
Advise on the presentation
The commonest fault is summarising the report instead of expanding an aspect of it. Say so early, before they have built the slides.
- 05
Arrange practice interviews
This is explicitly your role. Bring in a second chartered engineer the candidate does not know well — an unfamiliar questioner is far more useful than a friendly one.
- 06
Sign only what you believe
You are confirming their suitability for membership. If you would not defend a claim in their report, say so before signing, not afterwards.
Lead sponsor checklist
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Related pages and tools
- SponsorsWho can sponsor you, what the lead sponsor's role actually involves, and how to approach both without leaving it late.
- MentorsHow to be useful to a candidate: what to look at, what to say, and where your role stops.
- The report5,000 words in which two strangers have to see your competence: what ICE asks for, how to structure it, and how to edit it.
- PresentationChoosing what to expand on, structuring it, and the mistake almost every candidate makes first time.
- Mock reviewRun a practice sequence of questions and follow-ups, in coaching mode or under timed conditions.
- Plagiarism and AIWhat help is legitimate, what is not, and where ICE draws the line — in the submission and in the review itself.