Information for Nominators of Prizes

In order to make a nomination or an application for most RSC Prizes, you will need to supply:

• Your name and contact details
• The candidate's name, contact details and website URL
• A supporting statement of no longer than two A4 sides of 11pt text

When making nominations for the Corday-Morgan or Harrison-Meldola Memorial Prize, you will need to supply:

• Your name and contact details
• The candidate's name, contact details and website URL
• A supporting statement of no longer than one A4 side
• A one page CV for the candidate which should include their date of birth, summary of education and career, list of 5 publications, total numbers of publications and patents, and other indicators of esteem and evidence of independence
• The names and contact details of two independent referees who will be contacted for a reference. For the Corday-Morgan Prize these should not be someone from the same institution or the candidate's post-doc or PhD supervisor.

Please note that if the submitted documents exceed the stated length, the extra content will not be forwarded to the awards sub-committee. 

Selection Criteria

The following aspects of all nominations for scientific research Prizes and Awards will be considered by the selection committee(s) as appropriate:

• Originality of research
• Impact of research
• Quality of publications and/or patents
• Innovation
• Professional standing
• Independence (for early career Awards and Prizes only)
• Collaborations
• Other indicators of esteem indicated by the nominee/nominator

Selection procedure

1. Referees will be contacted for the Corday-Morgan and Harrison-Meldola Prizes. One referee will be from the nominators suggestions, the other will be selected by the Awards Sub-Committee. Referees will be asked to state their relationship with the candidate. 

2. All paperwork for the candidate, including references from the referees, will be circulated to members of the Awards Sub-Committee to be short-listed if there is a high volume of nominations; for subject-specific Prizes the relevant Division or Forum Committee will short-list the candidates. 

3. The shortlists for the Prizes will be considered by the Awards Sub-Committee in March.  Winners will be decided at this meeting.

Timeframe

1. Nominations for prizes open in early September  and close on 31 January  the following year.  Prizes run either annually, biennially or triennially.  Please refer to specific prize pages for details on this. 

2. The Awards office will send an email to acknowledge receipt of your nomination withing four working days of submission. The Awards office will not contact the candidate directly. 

3. Referees (if required), will be contacted immediately on receipt of the nominations. 

4. Candidates may be short-listed by the Awards Sub-Committee prior to their March meeting if there is a large number of nominations.  

5. At the meeting in March, winners will be chosen by the Awards Sub-Committee. 

6. The Prize winners will be contacted after this meeting in late March or early April. 

7. Once winners have accepted their Prizes, all of the nominators will be contacted with the results. 

8. The names of the winners will be publicised in the August or September issue of RSC News and on the RSC website. 

9. Prizes will be presented at either an Awards ceremony in November, or at a symposium or lecture during the year, by arrangement with the Prize-winner.