Prizes FAQs

Each year we recognise inspirational individuals, teams and collaborations for their hard work, dedication and achievements in advancing the chemical sciences.

There are several categories that make up our prize family:

Excellence in Education Prizes – celebrating educators in primary, secondary, further education and higher education – including teachers, technicians and more. These prizes recognise a wide range of skills and achievements – from curriculum design to effective teaching, and from personal development to working culture. This category includes specific prizes for individuals, teams and for those in the early stages of their career.

Horizon Prizes – highlighting exciting, contemporary chemical science at the cutting edge of research and innovation. These prizes are for groups, teams and collaborations who are opening up new directions and possibilities in their field, through ground-breaking scientific developments.

Horizon Prizes for Education – highlighting recent initiatives that are set to make a real difference in the field of education. These could include teaching programmes or techniques, research breakthroughs, innovative technologies and more. These prizes are open to individuals, teams and collaborations.

Inclusion & Diversity Prize – celebrating those improving access and progression for all in the chemical sciences, this prize recognises a team or individual who has made an exceptional contribution to promoting and improving the accessibility, inclusivity and diversity of the chemical science community.

Research & Innovation Prizes – recognising brilliant chemical scientists carrying out amazing work in academia and industry. This category includes prizes for people at different career stages, working in specific fields, as well as interdisciplinary prizes and prizes for those in specific roles.

Volunteer Recognition Prizes – our members volunteer their time in numerous ways, from serving on our boards and committees, to organising and running public engagement activities. These prizes are for teams and individuals, and celebrate those who go above and beyond to form communities and support and inspire others.

Think about the best form of recognition – are you nominating an individual, or are you nominating a group, team or collaboration that has worked on a specific project, initiative or breakthrough?

Use our prize filter page to explore all of our recognition opportunities. You can filter by field of interest, geographical location, or career stage.

Many of our Interest Groups also administer prizes that recognise significant contributions to their fields and areas of interest. You can click here to see a full list of Interest Group Prizes.

Some of our research-focused prizes have eligibility criteria that state (for example) ‘nominees should be an early career scientist’ or ‘nominees should be a mid-career scientist’.

To support judges, nominators and nominees, we have included guidance on the typical maximum level of full-time equivalent professional experience anticipated from nominees, after fully taking account of any time away from research, career breaks or interruptions.

The word 'typical' is included to take account of different career paths and journeys, as well as (for example) parental leave, long-term health conditions and disabilities, which may impact upon an individual's career progression in different ways.

All nominators for our early- and mid-career prizes will be asked to provide details of their nominee’s professional experience/career stage, as part of the nomination process, including:

• The date (month and year) of the start of the nominee's career in scientific research. This does not include any time spent in full-time education or studying for a PhD.
• Details (dates and time periods) of any part-time work, time away from research, career breaks or interruptions – for example, parental/adoption leave, caring responsibilities, long-term illness, family commitments, etc.
• Details of any other circumstances not captured above for example, long-term conditions, disabilities, etc. – that may impact on a nominee’s research career but might not be captured as a career break.

This information will be shared with the prize committee. Before doing so, RSC staff will always seek consent from the nominee in cases where special category data is mentioned. Please make sure that you provide enough information for the committee to understand the nature and impact of any time away from research.

Please do not hesitate to contact the team at awards@rsc.org should you have any questions about the above.

Any member of the Royal Society of Chemistry (any membership category) can make a nomination for a Horizon Prize, Research & Innovation Prize or a Volunteer Recognition Prize.

Anyone, regardless of membership status, can nominate for an Excellence in Education Prize, Horizon Prize for Education or our Inclusion & Diversity Prize.

You don’t have to be in a senior position to make a nomination. It’s a myth that nominations carry more weight based on who has submitted them – our prize committee members never see who has made a nomination.

If you are looking to nominate a team or collaboration that you were or are part of, you can either self-nominate, or ask someone else to nominate you. Self-nomination is generally not permitted for our prizes for individuals.

Please note that for prizes where there are membership criteria for nominators, membership must be confirmed by the nomination deadline. It is not sufficient to have a membership application in process.

RSC membership applications can take a few weeks to process, so please allow sufficient time for your membership to be confirmed. If your membership login shows your membership status as “Web Applicant / Applicant”, this means your application is still being processed and you have not yet been admitted as a member.

Nominating for our prizes is important. Making a nomination is your opportunity to influence who or what your society is recognising.

There are so many reasons why you might consider making a prize nomination, either for an individual, or a team or collaboration:

• Help shine a light on something amazing happening in your field – this may be teaching, inclusion & diversity, volunteering, scientific research, innovation, etc.
• Make someone’s day and let them know that you find their work inspiring. Being nominated is a form of recognition in itself!
• Help advance someone else’s career
• Help celebrate positive contributions to society, enabled by people working in the chemical sciences
• Help inspire chemical scientists of the future
• Help improve the diversity of our nominee pool

We know that there have been, and there still are, groups of people and sectors that are underrepresented in our prize programme. One way that you can help to change this is to make sure that individuals from underrepresented groups are being nominated.

Writing a nomination is a transferable skill, and applicable to many other documents you might be asked to write in the future – for example, a cover letter for a job application, or a reference for a co-worker. If you have never made a nomination before, now is a great opportunity to start developing these skills!

If you want to be in with a chance of receiving a prize, you first need to be nominated!  

Winning a prize can help raise the profile of your work, your team, your school, institution or company, and can help advance your career. 

Regardless of the outcome of the nomination, going through the process of being nominated can provide a useful opportunity to engage in personal or professional self-assessment, and to reflect on your skills, strengths and areas you might want to develop in the future.

The best nominator is usually someone who is familiar with you or your team’s work, and who can describe your achievements clearly, and put them in context.

You don’t have to ask someone extremely senior to nominate you. To help reduce potential bias in the decision-making process, we do not inform our prize committee members who the nominator is for any nomination.

If you are looking to nominate a team or collaboration that you were or are part of, you can either self-nominate, or ask someone to nominate you.

We advise against encouraging lots of people to nominate you. In cases where we receive more than one nomination for the same nominee in the same cycle, only one nomination will go forward to judging. This is to ensure that our prize committees have a similar amount of information about each nominee available to them. If we receive more than one nomination for the same person, we will contact all nominators in advance of the judging process.

For some prizes, your nominator must be a current member of the Royal Society of Chemistry (any category of membership). Check each prize webpage for full details. For prizes where there are membership criteria for nominators, membership must be confirmed by the nomination deadline. It is not sufficient to have a membership application in process. RSC membership applications can take a few weeks to process, so your nominator should make sure they allow sufficient time for their membership to be confirmed.

Yes you can – anyone can make a nomination for our Excellence in Education Prizes.

If you’re thinking of nominating your teacher, make sure to read the advice below on what makes a good nomination. Remember, our prize committees make their decisions based only on the information that you submit – it’s your role as nominator to give them as much useful information about your nominee as you can. Use the space wisely, read the selection criteria and address them in your statement, providing clear evidence where you can.

Consider asking another teacher for advice on your writing – a fresh perspective might be useful.

Our prizes are open for nomination in specific windows, usually for a period of around 3 months. Exact dates can vary from year to year, so it is best to check our website for details.

Our Horizon Prizes, Inclusion & Diversity Prize, Research & Innovation Prizes and Volunteer Recognition Prizes are typically open for nominations between October and mid-January.

Our Excellence in Education Prizes and Horizon Prizes for Education are typically open for nominations between April and June.

Make sure that you leave plenty of time to prepare and submit your nomination. To ensure fairness and transparency, we will not accept any nomination or reference after the advertised deadlines.

There is no limit on the number of nominations you can submit. There are some conditions associated with our prizes for individuals:

• Nominees can only be considered for one of our individual Excellence in Education Prizes in any given year.
• Nominees can only be considered for one of our individual Research & Innovation Prizes in any given year.
• Nominees should not be nominated for both of our Awards for Exceptional Service and Inspirational Member Awards in a single year.

There are some conditions associated with our prizes for individuals:

• Nominees can only be considered for one of our individual Excellence in Education Prizes in any given year.
• Nominees can only be considered for one of our individual Research & Innovation Prizes in any given year.
• Nominees should not be nominated for both of our Awards for Exceptional Service and Inspirational Member Awards in a single year.

It is possible to be nominated for both an individual prize and be part of a nominated team/collaboration (for example, one of our Horizon Prizes), in the same prize cycle. 

Currently, prize nominations for our Education, Horizon, Inclusion & Diversity and Research & Innovation Prizes are automatically considered for two consecutive cycles. We are trialling a process where unsuccessful nominations automatically rollover to the next prize cycle. This will happen for all nominations, unless circumstances have changed in relation to the eligibility criteria for the prize. 

The RSC Prizes team will write to nominators and nominees to confirm when the nomination window has re-opened. Nominators will receive instruction on how to log in and update the nomination. We strongly encourage all nominators to update their nominations, to ensure that recent developments and achievements can be taken into consideration by our Prize Committees.

Nominators and nominees should ensure that they still meet the eligibility criteria for the prize, for example, relating to membership status, career stage, or geographical location. If the nominee no longer meets eligibility criteria for the prize, please let us know at awards@rsc.org. It may be possible that they could be considered for a different prize.

As with any RSC prize nomination, if eligibility criteria are not met by either nominator or nominee at the nomination deadline, the nomination will not be considered.

After two cycles, the nomination will be deleted; to be considered again, the nominator would need to begin a new nomination from scratch.

For our prizes for individuals, we will not consider nominations of deceased individuals.

For prizes open to teams and collaborations, such as our Horizon Prizes, it is possible for some individuals within teams/collaborations to be recognised posthumously, in cases where they made important contributions to the initiative or breakthrough being recognised.

You can find out more about joining the Royal Society of Chemistry as a member by visiting the Membership section of our website.

Our six membership categories reflect career stages and levels of experience, with focused benefits to match. To join, identify the membership category that is best for you and click through to read more about what you’ll need to apply.

Please note that for prizes where there are membership criteria, membership must be confirmed by the nomination deadline. It is not sufficient to have a membership application in process. RSC membership applications can take a few weeks to process, so please make sure that you allow sufficient time for your membership to be confirmed.

For some of our prizes, nominees should be a current member (any membership category) of the Royal Society of Chemistry:

• Horizon Prizes – at least one member of nominated teams/collaborations should be an RSC member.
• Research & Innovation Prizes – a small number of prizes have an RSC membership requirement. Please check each prize for details.
• Volunteer Recognition Prizes

There is no membership requirement for nominees for our Excellence in Education Prizes, Horizon Prizes for Education, Inclusion & Diversity Prize, and most of our Research & Innovation Prizes.

Please note that for prizes where there are membership criteria, membership must be confirmed by the nomination deadline. It is not sufficient to have a membership application in process. RSC membership applications can take a few weeks to process, so your nominee should make sure they allow sufficient time for their membership to be confirmed.

Once you’ve found the prize you want to make a nomination for, read the information on the webpage carefully. The ‘guidance for nominators’ section of the page will outline all of the material that you will need to prepare and submit for the nomination.

This material will vary depending on the prize, but for all nominations, you’ll need to prepare a supporting statement(s). 

When you’re ready to start your nomination, you will need to follow the instructions on the page and click through to our nomination portal.

Our nominations portal is a separate system to other areas of the Royal Society of Chemistry website. If you have not made a prize nomination or applied for one of our grants previously, you will need to create an account to start a nomination. If you believe you already have an account, please contact us and we can check this for you.

Once you have logged in, you can progress through the nomination form. The form will ask you to submit details about yourself and your nominee, and prompt you for any other details that may be required to make a nomination for that prize – for example, a one-page CV or details of a referee.

You do not have to complete your nomination all in one go. Your nomination will be linked to your account and will auto-save, so that you can come back and finish it another time.

We're committed to making our nomination process accessible to all. You can find all the information required for a nomination listed on the webpage for a particular prize. We ask that nominations are made via our portal, but we can be flexible in the ways we receive information.

If you would like to nominate using a different format, please contact the team at awards@rsc.org, or on +44 (0) 1223 432418, and we will do our best to put any reasonable adjustments in place. 

If your prize requires a reference, the nomination system will prompt you to input the referee’s name and a contact email address.

As soon as you submit these details, your referee will be sent an automated email with a link to your nomination. Clicking this link will allow them to login to submit their reference.

It is your responsibility as nominator to ensure that your referee is aware of the nomination, that they should expect an email invitation to submit their reference, and that they are aware of what is required to ensure that the reference is submitted before the deadline. All referees will receive one e-mail reminder from RSC staff in the week before the reference deadline.

Nominations will not go forward to judging without a completed reference. Please ensure you submit your referee's details in plenty of time, to allow them sufficient opportunity to provide their reference.

Please contact us in plenty of time if you experience any issues, and we will be glad to assist.

Our nominations portal is a site run by SurveyMonkey Apply. Royal Society of Chemistry staff are not able to reset your password or request this to be changed, but the SurveyMonkey Apply team will be able to assist you if you follow the instructions below. They are usually very quick to help.

• Go to the Support Contact Form.
• Select the option that best describes your issue from the available drop downs. The suggested articles may help to resolve your problem.
• If you are unable to find an answer to your question in one of the articles, click Request Support.
• Enter the Name and Email address that your account is registered under.
• Provide the subject of your email and a brief description of your issue.
• Click Submit.

Alternatively, you can also send SurveyMonkey Apply an email directly (support[at]smapply.io) from your account's email address to request login assistance. In order to maintain the security of your account, the following conditions must be met when requesting login assistance:

• The request must come from the same email address that you are using to login to SurveyMonkey Apply.
• There must be no additional recipients on the email chain.

Please remember to leave plenty of time to prepare and submit your nomination. For fairness and transparency, we will not accept any nomination or reference after the advertised deadlines.

Nomination packages are important. Our prize committees will make their decision based solely on the information that you put into the nomination package. As nominator, you are responsible for providing that information.

Here are a few tips in preparing your nomination and supporting statement. These, and more, can be found in our guidance for nominators.

• Write for a general audience. Each of our selection committees have a great breadth of expertise, but it is likely that most members will not have very specialised knowledge of your nominee’s field. Do not assume that the prize committee know your nominee, that they know their area in detail, or that they are aware of the importance of the work you are writing about. It is your job as nominator to explain all of this as clearly as you can.
  
  
• Use the space wisely. You have a limited amount of space on the nomination form to make your case. Consider how you make the best use of it – make sure every word counts. Try to avoid duplicating information. For example, if the nomination form requests a one-page CV and a supporting statement, consider how they can fit together and provide complementary information. If your prize requires a reference, work with the referee to make sure that your supporting statement and reference work well as a package.
  
  
• Address the selection criteria. Take time to read the selection criteria for the prize. Address them in your supporting statement and provide clear evidence where you can.

Writing your supporting statement might take a few iterations until you’re happy with it. Consider asking someone for advice on your writing – a fresh perspective might be useful.

All nominations are checked through by RSC staff to ensure that basic eligibility criteria for the prize, as detailed on the webpage, are met.

After the nomination window is closed, we will contact all nominators and nominees to confirm receipt of the nomination. We do not inform nominees of the identity of the nominator.

We also ask nominators and nominees to complete a short diversity survey. Although voluntary, we strongly encourage you to take part in this survey. The survey is anonymous, and the information you provide helps us have a clear understanding of diversity in the context of our prize programme. Relevant prize and governance committees actively review our prize diversity data each year. This review forms a key part of decisions about the continual evolution of our programme.  

Your nomination will be sent on to prize committee members. Judges will only see information relating to your nominee. They don’t see who the nominator is.

After prize winners have been selected, we will inform all nominators and nominees of the outcome in advance of the announcement of winners.

For fairness and transparency, we are not able to accept any nomination or reference after the advertised deadlines. 

We have several prize committees which serve as judging panels for groups of our prizes. These committees are made up of volunteers and representatives from our community. Our Subject Community prize committees are chaired by Community Council Presidents, or a nominated representative.

You can see which committee is responsible for judging a particular prize, and who is on that committee, on the webpage for that prize. Committee membership is updated each year in advance of nominations opening.

Before reviewing any nominations, we ask members of our prize committees to complete an unconscious bias training module.

Committee members first review the full list of nominees for each prize, and let RSC staff know of any conflicts of interest. Committee members do not assess nominations for which they declare a conflict.

Committee members review nominations independently, and then meet – either in person or virtually – to select winners. The purpose of the meeting discussion is to enable sharing of perspectives between members, to allow the group to reach the best collective judgement.

Each selection meeting is attended by an independent observer. They play an important role in ensuring that the decisions made are reached fairly, and they are asked to challenge the committee if they think that this is not the case.

If you are selected to receive a prize, we will be in touch to let you know the good news! We will ask you to complete a short acceptance form and work with you on your entry in our prize winners’ gallery.

We will also ask you to complete a short diversity survey. Although voluntary, we strongly encourage you to take part in this survey. The survey is anonymous, and the information you provide helps us have a clear understanding of diversity in the context of our prize programme. Relevant prize and governance committees actively review our prize diversity data each year. This review forms a key part of decisions about the continual evolution of our programme. 

We will also ask you to sign our Code of Conduct Declaration for Prizes and Recognition. We expect members and non-members who are awarded prizes and other forms of recognition to follow and adhere to the principles outlined in our Code of Conduct for membership.

Yes! Remember that you will not be alone, and that there are always far fewer prize winners than nominees. Although we cannot provide feedback on nominations, most prize nomination lists are extremely competitive.

Often people try several times before winning a prize, and the nominee pool for any prize is unique to that particular year.

We are trialling a process whereby unsuccessful nominations for our Excellence in Education Prizes, Horizon Prizes, Horizon Prizes for Education, Inclusion & Diversity Prize, and Research & Innovation Prizes will automatically roll over once for consideration again in the next prize cycle, unless the nominee’s circumstances have changed so as to make them ineligible. We will write to all nominators to encourage them to update their nomination in between rounds, so please look out for this opportunity.

Following recommendations from the 2019 Review of RSC Recognition Programmes, the RSC has put in place a number of measures to ensure that, in so far as we can, we are recognising prize winners that are positive ambassadors and role models for the chemical sciences community.

We require nominators to confirm that, to the best of their knowledge there is no impediment, relating to professional conduct, to their nominee receiving the prize for which they are being nominated.

Prize committee members evaluate all nominations based only on the information submitted by the nominator, referee (where applicable) and the selection criteria for that prize. We provide all prize committees with written guidance on what to do in the unlikely event that they have concerns relating to the professional conduct of a prize nominee. If at any point a prize committee member feels that they cannot review a nomination solely based on the content of that nomination, our guidance is that they should declare a Conflict of Interest and remove themselves from the assessment and discussion of that nominee.

After our prize committee winner selection meetings, the RSC Prizes Team share the list of proposed winners with the Secretary to our Professional Standards Board (PSB). If a proposed winner is the subject of a current RSC disciplinary process or has had a historical finding of breaching our Code of Conduct the situation is considered in consultation with our Trustees.

We require that all individual prize winners sign the Code of Conduct Declaration for RSC Recognition in advance of their announcement as a winner.

All matters that relate or potentially relate to our Code of Conduct are considered in the framework of our Disciplinary regulations and procedures. Disciplinary Panels have the power to remove or rescind awards, prizes and other recognition, whether that be to a member or non-member.