Prizes and Awards

Overview:

• The Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in the United Kingdom recognize the country’s most promising faculty-rank (academic staff) researchers in Life Sciences, Physical Sciences & Engineering, and Chemical Sciences. One Blavatnik Laureate in each disciplinary category will receive £100,000 in unrestricted funds, with two Finalists receiving £30,000 each. The Blavatnik Awards are generously supported by the Blavatnik Family Foundation and independently administered by The New York Academy of Sciences.

Eligible nominees must:

• Have been born in or after 1985 (42 years of age or younger)
  • Age-limit exceptions will be considered by the Blavatnik Family Foundation in exceptional circumstances upon a detailed written submission from the nominating institution. 
• Hold a doctorate degree (PhD, DPhil, MD, DDS, DVM, etc.);
• Currently hold an academic staff position at an invited institution in the United Kingdom;
• Currently conduct research as a principal investigator in one of the disciplinary categories in Chemical Sciences, Life Sciences, or Physical Sciences & Engineering.

Nominees and their work as independent investigators will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

• Quality: The extent to which the work is reliable, valid, credible, and scientifically rigorous.
• Impact: The extent to which the work addresses an important problem, advances scientific progress, and is influential in the nominee’s field, related fields, or beyond, and/or has the potential to benefit society.
• Novelty: The extent to which the work challenges existing paradigms, establishes a new field or considerably expands on an existing field, employs original methodologies or concepts, and/or pursues an original question.
• Promise: The nominee has potential for further significant contributions to science, and the research program will generate further impactful and novel discoveries. 

Nominations:

• Please note that Imperial may only submit one application in each of the three disciplinary categories (Chemical Sciences, Physical Sciences & Engineering, and Life Sciences). Therefore, an internal selection process will be used.
• HoDs should submit nominations (max. one nomination per department) to Lara Breckon (l.breckon@imperial.ac.uk) before COB Monday 23rd March 2026 . Internal nominations should include (1) the nominees name, (2), the nominee’s CV, and (3) half-page outlining the reasons why the nominee is a suitable candidate for the award. If applicable, the internal nomination should be accompanied by a letter outlining Age Limit Exceptions.  Nominations will then be reviewed by RAG (or a subset of RAG chaired by the Vice-Provost (Research and Enterprise)).
• Please note that further materials will be required for successful candidates following the internal submission stage. The nomination package for the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in the UK contains the following documents:
  • Nomination Form
  • Rationale for Nomination
  • Curriculum Vitae
  • Research Summary
  • Professional Service and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Statement
  • Key Publications and/or Patents
  • Letters of Support

Please refer to the updated 2027 Blavatnik Awards in the UK Guidelines for details on candidate eligibility and selection criteria.  Details of nomination requirements can be found on the Blavatnik Award’s Nomination Materials & Instructions webpage. 

Prize Details:

• The University of Copenhagen hereby launches a call for nominees for the Sonning Prize 2027, Denmark’s largest cultural award, and thereby encourage you to share this notice among employees at your university.
• The Sonning Prize of 1.000.000 DKK (about EURO 134.000) is awarded by the Sonning-Foundation to a person who is “found to have done commendable work for the benefit of European culture”.
• The Sonning Prize is normally awarded every other year at a ceremony at the University of Copenhagen.

Nomination process

• Employees at European Universities may nominate candidates for the Sonning Prize.
• To nominate candidates, please send a brief proposal (no longer than one page) describing the candidate’s significance for European culture along with candidate curricula vitae.
• The Sonning Prize Committee, appointed by the Board of the University of Copenhagen, may request additional recommendations for the candidates the committee chooses to proceed with
• It is the Board of the Sonning-Foundation that, based on recommendations made by the Sonning Prize committee, selects the recipient of the Sonning Prize.

VPRE Office Deadline: Monday 4^th May 2026