Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists

The annual call for nominations to the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in the United Kingdom has just been announced, across three subject areas (full definitions on the Blavatnik website):

• Chemistry
• Physical Sciences & Engineering
• Life Sciences

One nominee in each disciplinary category will be awarded £100,000 in unrestricted funds and be named a Blavatnik Laureate. In addition, two Finalists in each category will each receive £30,000 in unrestricted funds. 

Oxford can only submit one nomination to each of the three subjects, therefore an internal selection process will run.

ELIGIBILITY

Eligible nominees must:

• Have been born in or after 1981 (42 years of age or younger)*.
• Hold a doctorate degree (PhD, DPhil, MD, DDS, DVM, etc.).
• Currently hold a tenured or tenure-track academic faculty position (or equivalent) at an invited institution in the United Kingdom.
• Currently conduct research as a principal investigator in one of the disciplinary categories in Life Sciences, Physical Sciences & Engineering, or Chemistry.

*Age-limit exceptions will be considered by the Blavatnik Family Foundation in exceptional circumstances. Please contact research@mpls.ox.ac.uk as soon as possible, and no later than 26 April, if a departmental nominee requires this.

INTERNAL SELECTION PROCESS

Each department can submit one nomination per subject category (therefore max. 3 total) to the internal selection panel. The Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists strive for nominee equality and diversity, and strongly encourage the nomination of women and members of other underrepresented groups in science and engineering.

Those selected by their department to apply should submit the following to research@mpls.ox.ac.uk by 12 noon, Monday 9 May:

1. 200 word rationale for their nomination
2. CV - an example of what to include can be found on the Blavatnik website. For the internal selection process, the CV should also briefly cover aspects of the Professional Service and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Statement such as (1) teaching and mentoring; (2) collaboration and leadership; (3) service, engagement and outreach; (4) current and/or planned research relevant to underserved populations or inequalities, or issues relevant to EDI. Selected Oxford nominees will need to provide this as a separate statement for the final application.
3. 1,000 word research summary - this should be written to be accessible to another scientist working in the overarching disciplinary category (e.g. Life Sciences) but not in the nominee’s specific field of study (e.g. Neuroscience). The summary can include one figure.

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