Organic Chemistry Horizon Prizes

Key information

Deadlines

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

Eligibility

Nominated teams must not include anyone named in one of these roles during the nomination or judging period:

• Organic Chemistry Prize Committee members
• RSC Subject Community Presidents
• RSC Prize Committee members
• Trustees of the Royal Society of Chemistry
• Royal Society of Chemistry staff

Nominators:

• Only RSC members can nominate for this prize.
• Self nomination is permitted and encouraged (see below and the 'Guidance for Nominators' tab for further details of who and what can be nominated).

Nominees:

• These prizes are open to nominees based in the UK or internationally.
• The prizes are open to groups, teams and collaborations of any form or size, and in exceptional circumstances, individuals.
• At least one group/team/collaboration member must be an RSC member; the RSC member is expected to have made a significant contribution to the discovery or advance.
• Please remember that the RSC will not award more than one prize for substantially the same body of work.
• Nominated teams should only be nominated once for this prize in any given prize cycle. In cases where we receive more than one nomination for the same team, only one nomination will go forward to judging.

Guidelines for nominators

General information

• The prizes are open to groups, teams and collaborations of any form or size, and in exceptional circumstances, individuals.
• Any form of discovery or advance in the field of organic chemistry can be nominated. It can be fundamental or applied, or be multidisciplinary and involve other disciplines.
• Please remember that the RSC will not award more than one prize for substantially the same body of work.
• Since 2023, we have been trialling a process where all unsuccessful nominations will automatically rollover once, to be considered for the next round of the prize, unless nominees' circumstances have changed to make them ineligible. This means that:
  • All nominations submitted for the first time for a 2024 prize will be considered for a 2025 prize. We strongly encourage nominators to update their nomination between cycles when the nomination window is open.
  • The RSC Prize Committee will review the outcomes from the trial in July 2025.

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 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.
• If not a self-nomination, details of a contact for the team. The RSC will correspond with this individual regarding the nomination and the outcome, and will work with them regarding acceptance of the prize if the nomination is successful.
• A list of all individuals who contributed to the discovery or advance including, but not limited to, all named authors or inventors listed on outputs. The primary contact for the team will be asked to confirm the list after the nomination deadline and, if necessary, add additional team members, e.g. technical staff and researchers not named on outputs.
• Full details of up to three outputs e.g. journal article, a granted patent, a protocol, a piece of software or research tool. The outputs should typically be from the last five years, measured by e.g. publication date, patent acceptance date, release date.
• A short citation describing what the prize should be awarded for. This must be no longer than 250 characters (including spaces) and no longer than one sentence.
• Supporting statements, written for a general scientific audience, addressing the selection criteria below:
  
  • Quality of discovery/advance: A summary/description of the discovery/advance (300 words)
  • Originality: Description of the originality of the work (150 words)
  • Significance to the field: Summary of the significance of the discovery/advance to the field, and why it should be recognised (300 words)

Our guidance for nominators page has more information on writing these supporting statements.

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

Our selection committees base their evaluations on the overall quality of relevant contributions and achievements by nominees, in relation to the selection criteria listed below.

The scientific content of any supporting publications, as described in the supporting statement, is much more important than publication metrics or the identity of the journal in which it is published.

The selection committee will consider the following aspects of nominations for this prize:

• Quality of discovery/advance
• Originality
• Significance to the field

Organic Chemistry Prize Committee

• David O'Hagan, University of St Andrews (Chair)
• Vijay Chudasama, University College London
• Dorcas O. Moronkola, University of Ibadan, Nigeria
• Angela J. Russell, University of Oxford
• Eoin Scanlan, Trinity College Dublin, Republic of Ireland
• Robert Stockman, University of Nottingham
• Katherine Wheelhouse, GSK

History of the prize

These prizes were created in 2020, as part of a series of changes introduced following an independent review of the Royal Society of Chemistry's recognition programmes. 

These prizes belong to our new family of Horizon Prizes, which highlight the most exciting, contemporary chemical science at the cutting edge of research and innovation. These prizes are for teams or collaborations who are opening up new directions and possibilities in their field, through ground-breaking scientific developments.

Winning teams will be named the Perkin Prize winners. Click through for more information on the history of this award and a list of previous winners.