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The evaluation of research and indeed any aspect of science and engineering is a complex process. Engineering research encompasses a wide range of creative, theoretical and practical activities involving many communities within a country and beyond. Such diversity, both in the communities of interest that science and engineering serves, and in the character of the research itself, poses a number of challenges to the assessment of excellence. All those responsible for the funding of public research, across the globe, are re-examining the methods traditionally used to assess research quality. Government funded research agencies are increasingly under pressure to justify their share of tax- payers' money. Meanwhile, research, particularly engineering research, is becoming increasingly more interdisciplinary, carried out by a wider set of practitioners, whose interests include simple wealth creation and academic excellence. It is in this complex, dynamic environment that the essential differences between science and engineering are sometimes overlooked. This paper therefore presents in simple terms what we consider to be general principles for the assessment of excellence in science and engineering research, adaptable to different needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]