Inspirational Member Awards

Guidelines for nominators

• Nominations open 15 October.
  
• Nominations close 14 January, 17:00 GMT.

Nominee eligibility

• This award is only open to current members of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
• Honorary or permanent officers of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Trustees and members of the Member Communities Board shall not normally be eligible to receive the Award whilst in office.
• Non-members and past members of the Royal Society of Chemistry are not eligible for this award. 
• Self-nominations will not be accepted for this award.

Restrictions

• It is not possible for a member to be awarded this award and the Award for Exceptional Service in the same year.
• Nominators should not submit nominations for the same individual for both awards in a single year.
• An individual can normally only receive this award once. Consideration will be given to nominations for previous winners for previously unrecognised activities.

Nominator criteria

• Any current member of the Royal Society of Chemistry may submit nominations for this award.
• Staff and non-members of the RSC are not permitted to submit, second or support nominations for this award.
• All nominations must include the names and membership numbers of a proposer and seconder.
• Nominations will be invited from the Board of Trustees, members of all Community Councils and the officers of our member networks.

To make a nomination, please use our online nominations system to submit the following information:

• Your name, contact details, and membership number (please contact the RSC Membership team if you do not know your membership details). Your RSC membership must be confirmed at the point of nomination – it is not sufficient to have a membership application in process. The identity of nominators/seconders is not made known to our judging panels. The RSC reserves the right to amend nominations if necessary to ensure the anonymity of the nominator.
• All nominations for this award must include details of a seconder (name, contact details, and membership number if known).
• The nominee committee name.
• A citation which addresses the selection criteria and demonstrates how the activities of the committee relate to the purpose of this award. This must be no longer than 350 words. Please see the Selection Criteria and Judging Panel tab for further information on writing this citation.

The RSC reserves the right to rescind any prize if there are reasonable grounds to do so. All nominators will be asked to confirm that to the best of their knowledge there is no impediment, relating to professional conduct, to their nominee receiving this prize. All prize winners will be asked to sign the RSC’s Code of Conduct Declaration for Recognition.

Selection Criteria and Judging Panel

Selection criteria

Download sample citation - Inspirational Member Award

All nominations must be supported by a citation which demonstrates how the activities of the individual relate to the purpose of the award.

An excellent citation could include:

• Details of how the nominee was personally responsible for driving forward a new idea/approach
• Details of how the nominee engaged others in their activities
• Details of the impact on the community and committee of their activities
• Details of how the nominee has impacted the future of the network
• The RSC has many members. Your citation should demonstrate why you think the nominee is considered inspirational relative to other members.

Citations should not include references to academic achievements or paid work, voluntary work for other organisations or to length of service. While we value the roles that members hold through other organisations and within their communities, this award is established to recognise the volunteering contribution made to the RSC. As such, we do not/will not consider the contributions of roles such as school governor etc. as part of the judging process.

Judging process

The Member Networks Committee will convene a panel to make recommendations to the Committee. If a conflict of interest arises then the panel member will be replaced. The final decision will sit with the Chair of the panel. 

History of the prize

Our Inspirational Member Awards and Inspirational Committee Awards were launched in 2015, to recognise the contributions of individual members and member network committees who are instrumental in driving new ideas and approaches to support our community.